


Unexpected

by bluemoonwings



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Dancing, Dom/sub Undertones, F/F, First Time, Lesbians, Smut, Suddenly plot, Superpower Sex, little kinks, oh shit you're supergirl, ow i might be broken, wow a lot of plot all of a sudden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-12 02:38:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12949503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemoonwings/pseuds/bluemoonwings
Summary: Cat Grant throws a party, goes home triumphantly with Kara...and winds up with Supergirl.





	1. Twists

**Author's Note:**

> For the beautiful and talented DelightfulDanvers, my muse in this, who tirelessly allows me to run crazy ass ideas through her brilliantly transgressive/progressive/aggressive mind. She also dragged me kicking and screaming into this fandom and now I'm addicted. Thanks a lot. -_-

The company party was officially off the chain, and Kara had no idea how she had convinced Cat to let it happen. Maybe it was the shiny new Pulitzer gleaming in the display case outside her office, or perhaps it was it was the more personal aspect of their relationship that had recently begun to take only a few weeks prior.

                She shook off the memories that passed through her mind, of quick, dizzying kisses in and out of the office, dinners taken privately, and that one night she had taken Cat a dress delivery and been rewarded with a strong third base make out session a few days ago. There were things to focus on now and she couldn’t afford to let her guard down, or it would be her head on a stake. Not even her (undefined, as of yet) relationship with the boss would cover her ass if the party spontaneously imploded and ended in disaster the moment her back was turned.

                As it stood, however, nothing short of Darkseid showing up in a Boomtube appeared capable of ruining the celebratory mood. Everything from the catering to the DJ had been smooth. They were using the ballroom on the tenth floor and by heavens, it looked perfect. Cat had starkly forbidden “any of that awful hip hop or electronica minstreling” at the party, but everything else had been fair game. So far the DJ had complied, against his better judgment, Kara suspected, but no one else was complaining. She made a mental note to tip him a little extra for this very danceable, modern, jazzy stuff he was running with. She was also relieved to see that her coworkers, surprisingly, could do more in the way of dancing than bumping and grinding like degenerate teenagers. Really, they all seemed to be fairly decent. Kara had done a little as a child, but had never really broken out of her shell enough to show off. She surmised that perhaps now was the time, and was just about to join in a little with one group when there was a bit of a hush originating from the corner farthest from her.

                It was the one Ms Cat Grant, recent Pulitzer recipient, and owner and CEO of CatCo. In the flesh. Kara had seriously doubted that after the opening speech over an hour ago (which had been accomplished with much preening and well-deserved self-congratulations), Cat was even still at the party. Ostensibly she had retired to her office, and slipped out unnoticed. These kinds of shindigs were not really her scene. This part was for the common rabble, not the queen.

                Well, she was obviously mistaken. Also, given the look on Cat’s face, her evening was about to get seriously lengthened. Kara eased back into the heels she had toed off, and made a beeline for where her boss stood, hands on hips, glowering at some hipster dude from accounting.

                “Is there a problem?” Kara wondered as she approached Cat’s elbow, adjusting her glasses sheepishly.

                Cat scoffed and waved a dismissive hand at the poor soul who had evidently offended her. “They think I can’t dance.”

                “I beg your pardon?” Kara had clearly missed something big and her Cat-translator seemed to have shorted out.

                “That’s what _I_ said!” Cat exclaimed with widened eyes. Since this had been an after-work party, everyone was mostly still dressed for the office. She was no exception, but she was wearing a very fetching rose-gold sheath dress with sleek nude colored Jimmy Choos and minimal, classic jewelry. Her makeup and hair also looked fresh. Kara admired it even as she began to dread what demands would issue from the queen’s lips next.

                Shockingly, nothing did, other than a snarl of, “I’ll show you.” She looked at the DJ with a look more searing and laser-like than Kara’s heat vision, and issued a whip-like snap that drew looks from every direction.

                Kara’s mouth dropped open when he simply nodded and put on a “Feel It Still” remix. Satisfied enough, but rolling her eyes, Cat sauntered onto the floor. “Like I’m some kind of dinosaur. Give me a break. If you tire out before me, you’re fired,” she heard Cat growl as she kicked up her heels opposite Accounting-Dude with sharp steps and an effortless elasticity to her arms and legs. She twisted up and flared, perfectly in time with the music. Not a single bit of stiffness or awkwardness remained in her body. Her lines and precision spoke more of classical training rather than street learned styles that many of the others exhibited.  However, there was not a single person who wasn’t impressed, and a cheer rang out among the dancers, who all ringed around their boss for an unprecedented dance battle.

                In the hubbub, someone jostled Kara and she tripped, whereupon she was dragged into the circle despite vocal protests until she stumbled into a clearing, at the other side stood her boss, looking more intimidating and majestic than ever. Kara’s expression was like a deer in headlights, which probably gave the impression of being outright scared, when really she was just startled at suddenly having a flashback of kissing those scarlet lips not twenty-four hours ago. Lips that twisted in an amused, challenging grimace, and eyes that were silver in the light with a passion-lit excitement.

                The chorus and added musical interludes were twice as fast as the original song but Kara was stuck. There was no escaping unscathed today. Finally, she took a breath, straightened her glasses once again, tucked some stray locks behind her ears, and squared her shoulders. A single hop brought her face to face with Cat and here she began to duel her boss. She executed crisp isolations slightly faster than the average human, beating the floor as a little of her tap and ballet kicked in, and flared before twisting into a decidedly gravity-defying pirouette. Her feet stayed light and pointed, her body utterly controlled. Not a single bit of sloppiness or clumsiness would be acceptable. Cat wasn’t going to give it up easily, and matched her precision without breaking a sweat. She was clearly more coordinated than Kara without super speed to save her.

                They circled around one another clasped, changed hands, reversed, and lifted one another into little flare kicks, eyes never missing one another, until gentlemen interceded and the circle closed around them with everyone undulating, tapping, twirling, and clapping together. Kara found her partner, perhaps Accounting Dude or someone just like him, to be adequate, and even better at dancing than she, but nowhere near as exhilarating as the boss had been. Moreover, she felt her gaze grow uncomfortably hot as jealousy gripped her, watching Cat engage with others. Little did they know, Kara had held back so much. She could have executed those lifts with her pinky finger, and twice as fast at that.

                Oh well, there was nothing more to be said. It was better this way. Cat was so happy that she shouted permission for slightly more “urban” and “modern” music, which made the DJ and everyone else happy. People seemed to flood the dance floor as a mix of Ed Sheeran and Calabria blared out over the speakers. Shots got passed around, and someone let a champagne bottle explode over half of the crowd, eliciting wild cheers and no more than a good natured smile from Cat. It was around this time that suddenly, Kara found herself again face to face with her boss, but this time, pressed up against her, close enough to kiss.

                She could smell Cat’s light application of perfume, which she found intoxicating as it was laced with the scent of her sweat. The two scents were complimentary (surely, as Cat had meant for them to be), and made Kara feel a little faint in a way that had nothing to do with the heat. Their eyes met again and suddenly she felt Cat’s hip bump up against hers and a leg grind up against the inner side of her thigh. The older woman was breathing hard now, but not willing to look weathered in front of this mostly younger crowd, and kept dancing, her eyes on Kara.

                There was that electricity that always sparked and ran in high voltage currents between them whether or not they were touching. Kara knew well that neither of them were immune, though they fought equally to suppress and hide it. It wasn’t her place to give chase either, as Cat was the boss, in everything, including work. Thus far, she had seemed either too proud, too scared, or a combination of both, to give into it fully. Agonizing as it was to be so close to her, exchanging body heat directly, as it were, and not simply bend to her passions, it was no different to Kara from their clandestine embraces that dotted the recent dates with no apparent pattern. She had long decided to just “go with the flow” even if that flow happened to be as dangerous and unpredictable as lightning.

                Still, it was now ridiculously heated between them. She was surprised that no one had noticed, even though now everyone was grinding up against everyone else due to the packed floor. She sensed that Cat was panting very shallowly. Her body temperature and heartbeat were both rising with both the kinetic energy as with her fierce desire to possess the younger woman with whom she was dancing. Gently, Kara blew against the back of her neck as they drew close enough to embrace briefly, her icy breath rapidly cooling the underside of her hair. She drew back before she thought her boss might notice, and was satisfied to see that she appeared much more comfortable. The heat however, now all seemed concentrated in her serpentine eyes.

                Cat Grant’s lips drew up against her ears such that only she could hear, even without her super senses. “Take me home,” came a fierce purring command, like metal filings over silk. Kara did not need to be told twice. She stepped away and summoned a driver immediately.

 


	2. Untethered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat tries to be patient while driving Kara insane enough to let go. Kara resists for fear of revealing her true self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any semblance of plot vanishes for a chapter, but it's important for setting up chapter three. We're all degenerates here. I love to play with kinks and reveal characters through vulnerability as well as power.
> 
> Warning: the sex is NOT vanilla. It’s kind of kinky and there’s a little sub/dom sprinkled in for texture. Kara constantly reiterates her desire for it though. If this troubles you, skip to the last paragraph and then go on to chapter 3.

Cat didn’t appear to be in anything resembling a patient mood. As soon as she folded herself into the sleek black town car and dropped her purse beside her, she turned to Kara who was holding the door and still debating internally as to whether or not she was also invited, and grabbed her wrist. With her other hand she drew the privacy shutter, and did not wait for it to even be fully closed before dragging her mouth to Kara’s.

                Her mouth was soft and sweet, just as it always was, and hesitating despite her eagerness. It was a charming quality of both youth and innocence, which Cat enjoyed beyond words. It was such a turn on for her to break through Kara’s apprehension and adorable nervousness. She was practically climbing into Kara’s lap, yanking the Oxford style blouse out of her skirt, when she noticed that Kara’s hands had not left the general vicinity of her shoulders.

                “What’s wrong, Kiera?” Cat wondered airily, as though it were nothing to her. Of course this couldn’t have been further from the truth.

                Kara’s teeth worried her bottom lip. It was maddening to sit through the pause, even more so to think that maybe she was having second thoughts, and absolutely torturous to experience those two things while still wanting to suck on that lip. “Ms Grant,” Kara whispered, “I’m afraid…”

                Cat sat back a little. “Of what? Of me?” This could change things. Her hands stilled immediately. Damn this girl.

                Kara’s eyes went wide behind her glasses. “No! I mean yes, but no. I mean…of this… I’m afraid to… hurt you.”

                The fire, which had been momentarily banked, roared to life and Cat yanked Kara onto her side of the seat, pressed up against her. “Let go, Kara, I will be fine,” she growled, biting her earlobe. She felt Kara’s strong hands sliding down her waist, kneading her hip…

                “You don’t understand,” Kara was saying.

                Cat pulled away gently, holding back again, even though it almost hurt. There was a dull ache that was radiating from her abdomen and she was hoping to god that it would be answered in full. “You’ve never done this before, have you?” She whispered, kissing Kara gently.

                The young woman looked very surprised and taken aback. “Um. Well. No, I’ve never been… with a woman,” she finished in a nervous rush. She adjusted her glasses and couldn’t make eye contact.

                In a slightly teasing mood, Cat smirked. “So you’ve been with men?”

                Again the flash of baby blue eyes, wide in shock, before they darted away. Hands nervous, not knowing what to do, were captured by Cat’s, their fingers interlacing before she brought Kara’s palm to her lips for a kiss, and a swirl of her tongue, making her tremble. “No, I…No.” Kara whispered. “Is that a problem?”  
                Her response was a kiss that made Kara’s head swim with dark desire and clench her hands so hard on the headrest behind Cat’s head that it groaned and faintly bent out of shape. It went unnoticed by her boss and would-be lover, however.

                “It’s no problem at all,” Cat purred against the flesh that was being revealed, button by button. “I just needed to know if I could rush to the main act or not.” She looked up at Kara real quick. “I won’t. You’ll enjoy this. There’s a storm underneath all this schoolgirl acting. I intend to break you.”

                “Oh my God yes,” she heard Kara whisper, a second before Cat fell upon her again.

 

                Private entrances were a must when one garnered the notoriety and wealth that Cat enjoyed. She was dressed, not a hair out of place, nor a single wrinkle in her skirt that was abnormal when she emerged. Her assistant, on the other hand, while not appearing out of order, looked utterly dazed and wide-eyed with concern and desire in equal measure.

                She led Kara by the hand into the elevator that would shoot them right up to the penthouse, and let the doors close before she turned, stepped into Kara’s embrace, and set their lips together once again. “I can’t get enough of you,” Kara gasped. “You taste… oh God!” Cat had taken Kara’a hand and slid it up her skirt, between her legs. She held it there only for a moment but when she let go she was thrilled that Kara’s long fingers explored the area eagerly.

                “That’s so good, Kara,” Cat choked out, almost unable to speak from the pressure. “I’m so ready for you.”

                “Tell me what to do,” Kara insisted.

                “No, sweetie,” Cat drew back, to both of their disappointment as the elevator issued a cheerful ding to announce their arrival. She snatched Kara’s hand and a devious, sexy grin lit up her face. “First it’s _your_ turn.”

                The doors slid open, and Cat, quite literally, pounced.

               

                Kara bit her lip and told herself to hold back. A grasp too careless, a nip too fast, and she would break Cat worse than the headrest in the car. She wasn’t totally sure what she wanted to do but she knew for a fact it involved both of them naked and pressed up against one another. Hopefully without injuries. It would be enough for Cat to come, she decided. She just had to get her there, and that would be enough for tonight. She just had to resist. She could have fun, just not too much fun. She almost convinced herself that she would be satisfied with this solution.

                Thoughts of responsible, sensible behavior were becoming useless, however, because Cat had literally jumped on her in the hallway. Kara was carrying her, quite easily of course, but pretending to support her partially with the wall as she attacked her mouth with tongue and lips, and ripped free the remaining buttons on Kara’s new blouse, hips rocking together such that Kara wondered if she would come after all.

                “You’re wearing way too much,” Kara growled against Cat’s neck as they continued to stumble through the house to the bedroom. She was inhumanely fast, and careful, and managed to undo the zipper at the nape of her neck, dragging it down her spine before her desire made her hands clumsier. She did not want to harm the fine garment, but Cat’s flesh, hot and sweet, was calling to her.

                “Well done, Sunny Danvers,” Cat laughed, stepping out of the dress, and taking hold of her hands again. “You’re a natural, I guess.” She didn’t miss a beat, reaching behind herself to open the door and kick it shut behind them. “Get on that bed,” she snarled, reaching up Kara’s skirt, and hooking her index fingers in the waistband of her panties.

                Kara let herself drop onto the king sized bed, covered in the softest white coverlet and matching cloud-like sheets and felt herself grow very nervous at that predatory look in Cat’s eyes. It was going to be very difficult to stay in control. “Wait Cat,” she tried, feebly, to back away, toward the head of the bed, as Cat shucked her skirt off, leaving Kara in nothing but a very thin cami, bra, and panties. “I think we should…I should—”

                Cat was pursuing her again, physically, chasing her all the way to the headboard, laughing, and Kara joining in, raucously, wildly. One hand slid over to her front, from behind, bypassing undergarments and teasing one of her nipples. Kara bit her lip and tried not to cry out in excitement. Her other hand, flat, whipped downward and soundly spanked the exposed part of Kara’s ass. Once, then twice, as Cat’s teeth found purchase on one of her deltoid.

                This time Kara did scream. She tried to bite it back, but it came out. She barely resisted the urge to throw Cat down—powers and safety be fucked-- and plunge inside of her. _Don’t break, don’t break, don’t break_ , she insisted to herself, desperately, as Cat turned her around and spread her legs. Only then did she realize she had spoken aloud.

                Kara was lying against the preponderance of fluffy pillows, propped up against the hardwood headboard with delicate metal inlays and fixtures, and Cat was situated right up against her, lengthwise, between her legs, rocking gently against her pelvis, eliciting a desperate moan from the girl every time. “I’m going to do more than break you, Kara. Oh how I want you.” These smug words were spoken right up against Kara’s ear. “You have no idea what I’m going to do to you.” She reached behind Kara’s back and easily unhooked her bra, pulling it away, and revealing their fair, unblemished creamy expanse. She was almost envious of their symmetry, their modest, utterly alluring size and shape, and their delicate pink peaks. She couldn’t wait to taste them.

                Kara, writhing up against her, straining to hold back whatever sensations she was feeling, suddenly got mouthy. “I bet it’s not even half of what I’ll do to you, Cat. You’re just as wet, if not more.” And there was Kara’s hand, having left the headboard faster than Cat could blink, and sliding beneath her panties before she could stop and regain control. The faint dusting of curls yielded no resistance and then there was Kara’s index finger on her clit, which seemed molten in her current state.

                “Fuck!” Cat shrieked, but it was too late to stop Kara from rubbing her as though she had done it a hundred times, reaching between them as they ground together, until Cat was _right there_ … and then, between their clumsy passionate kisses, pushed deep inside of her.

                Cat’s world briefly came apart as she unexpectedly fell over the edge, clenching and trembling, and moaning into Kara’s mouth, and then into her hair as she dipped lower and captured one of her nipples through her bra, extending the wave a little further, wrapping her free arm around Cat’s waist to anchor them together until the tremors subsided. She wrapped Cat up in her arms. Cat, momentarily rendered powerless by sensation, complying as easily as a kitten, to lie back in the white cloud bed.

                Kara sat up now, stroking her arms and back adoringly. Now was her chance. She wanted to stay and lose her mind in Cat’s embrace, but she had done it. Somehow. Cat was surely satisfied, at least momentarily, and this was her moment to beat a hasty retreat, lest she court real disaster. 

                “Where the fuck do you think you’re going, little girl?” Kara, a current of electricity arcing through her, turned around and found Cat glowering at her, rising again, though her skin was slick with sweat and flushed deep pink.

                “Cat, we shouldn’t. This is enough. You don’t have to—” Kara involuntarily yelped as Cat grabbed her ankle and dragged her back over. It was thrilling and Kara eagerly reached back for her. Their fingers linked as she laid a searing kiss upon her mouth that had lost none of its intensity. “I really don’t need you to—” Cat was climbing on top of her. “Really, I don’t expect you to—” Cat didn’t even bother telling her to shut the hell up, as she busied herself with Kara’s right index finger.

                First, it was a kiss, then a slightly deeper kiss, and then her tongue darted out and encircled the pad of Kara’s finger. Eventually, slowly, she drew the finger into her mouth, tongue swirling, sucking, as she did, pulling away, and back over and over, watching as Kara’s eyes grew huge with shock and delight. Her lips mouthed “oh my god” but no sound came out. Cat had her now. She pulled Kara’s finger from her mouth now, and, ensnaring both hands in hers and dragging them over her head against the headboard, trapped her.

                “You just sit tight, Wonder Girl,” Cat growled, delighting in the way that Kara seemed on the verge of hyperventilating, “you’ll be screaming soon enough.”

                “Cat you don’t know what you’re saying—”

                Cat’s teeth were on her throat now. Not hard, but enough for the sensation to fire up every nerve. “Pretty little virgin, if you were any less innocent and cute, I would ravage you with a strap-on so hard you wouldn’t be able to walk straight for a week.” Kara blushed hard at this. Cat could tell that it was both shock and excitement. “But we’ll work up to that. First let’s see if you can take my tongue.”

                “Cat!”

                “But I won’t allow you to escape. No ma’am.” Cat reached into a bedside table and pulled out a length of braided silk rope. “This won’t chafe your soft skin, baby, but I’m not going to let you free just yet. I promise, you’ll enjoy it. I won’t hurt you. Do you trust me?”

                Kara, unable to speak, nodded vigorously, though she was trying hard to say no, and be responsible. She felt herself drowning in Cat’s hot liquid-sex-and-Chanel scent as she bound her wrists firmly but gently into the curves of carved wood above her. She squeezed her thighs together to try to assuage the pressure there, but Cat too soon returned. “Tell me you’re mine,” Cat commanded snatching the waistband of her panties and dragging them down with agonizing slowness.

                “Cat, listen to me—”

                Strong fingers parted Kara’s knees as though she were no more than a feather. Kara was bare to her gaze and there was nothing she could do.  “Is that a no?” Cat wondered coyly.

                “Not at all, Cat, I want you, but—”

                Cat was slipping out of her own bra. Kara bit her lip to stop from gaping like a fish at the sight of her. She was so slender, waif-like. Her breasts were smaller than Kara’s, but lovely, with nipples a little darker, and already tight. She crawled up Kara’s body and pushed them against her face, careful not to let them get close enough for Kara to take into her mouth. “Tell me you’re mine,” Cat repeated.

                “Yes,” Kara almost sobbed as Cat ground their hips together, pushing her pretty breasts in her face.

                “Say it,” Cat growled. “And tell me you want this.”

                Kara whimpered at the pressure again. “I’m yours, Cat, and I want this—want you—so bad.”

                Now, Cat drew away a little, and met her eyes. “Good girl.”

               

                Had she not been Kryptonian, her breasts would have been faintly bruised and marked from the urgent suckling to which Cat had just subjected her. As it was, her nipples were so hard they hurt, and glistened in the low light after being so loved by Cat’s smooth tongue. Kara blinked tears from her eyes and tried to bring her breathing back to normal. She couldn’t look at Cat. She felt heat in the back of her head, and shut her eyes tightly. To let loose now might be disasterous.

                Oh, but Cat wouldn’t stop. Her hands, her mouth, were everywhere. Stroking and exploiting every sensitive place on Kara’s body. She wanted to cry out when teeth had grazed her inner thigh, her calves and ankles, her hips, the undersides of her breasts, and especially low on her stomach, which is where Cat was now, but beyond some uncontrolled moans, she kept quiet, straining, not against her tethers, which might as well have been thread to her, but against herself. Over and over she commanded herself—begged herself—not to break.

                “Kara I can feel you from here. It’s unreal,” Cat was saying, gently whorling a finger in her pubic hair. “I thought for sure you would come just from your tits alone. You felt so close. Why do you hold back? There’s no need.”

                “I can’t…”

                Cat’s two middle fingers slid down to encircle the bud of nerves there, with nearly zero friction thanks to Kara’s abundant wetness. She whined and bit her lip, shaking with the effort. “Let go, Kara. What are you afraid of?”

                With Cat’s tongue now replacing her fingers, Kara was speechless. She began running through training simulator scenarios, stress from work, the destruction of her home planet, and everything that she could to take the edge off of what was happening. She was failing. It felt almost like a sneeze; involuntary, or an itch that she could no longer resist scratching, but oh, so much better. Every inch of her was buzzing. Vibrating. Burning. “I’ll hurt you,” she whispered as her hips bucked up toward Cat, whose response was to grab her ass and apply even more pressure.

                Kara strained against the rope again, and it began to give way immediately, which gave her impetus to stop, and contain her frustration within her skin, and not express it physically. It was even more agonizing with the building tension in her center. She was tight like a bowstring and ready to snap. “Oh please,” she begged.

                “Please what?” Cat purred against her soft wet flesh.

                “Please stop!” Kara cried, more at herself, the inner force of her powers, than anything else, and at this, Cat did look up at her.

                “Really?” She was in no hurry, but watching carefully for signs of real distress. Of course, Kara didn’t mean it, as made evident by the way her legs now wrapped around Cat’s body and clenched her ever closer.  “Really Kara, just let go. You’re the one prolonging your agony. I just want to give it to you now. Let me.” Jesus, had Kara always been so beautiful? Of course, she told herself, but there was something about this moment that made her hair seem so much blonder, and her eyes so much bluer. She was almost hard to look at she was so perfect. Her teeth, her muscles, straining and stretching, her soft, totally unblemished skin... She was like a goddess.

                “Please Cat.”

                A smile against her secret flesh. “Not that I don’t love how insane a little edging makes you,” Cat murmured, admiring the way Kara twisted and undulated her body in a mixture of pleasure and delicious agony.

                Now, Cat made good on her word and Kara literally let out a short little scream as her tongue teased and penetrated her folds without resistance. She bucked, sobbed, and cursed as hard as she could, pushing up against Cat for more.

                “You’re safe here, Kara, I’ve got you,” Cat whispered, not knowing if Kara was even coherent enough to understand. She replaced her tongue with her middle finger and was pleased that Kara’s tight body welcomed it. She bent her head to use her tongue more when her finger crooked and found the right spot inside her beautiful young lover. “Give yourself to me. Trust me,” Cat growled, voice thick with her own desire, and now with two fingers—barely—she repeated the hooking motion while slipping her tongue over Kara’s clit with force.

                The result was instantaneous, and glorious. Kara cursed, graphically, erotically, in English, and then, seemingly, in gibberish that sounded far too deliberate and enunciated, even to Cat’s desire-drowned hearing. And then she came, hard, in a rush.

                It was like her skin shredded along with every nerve, muscles coming unwound and electricity arcing through it all, even in her bones, her teeth, and her hair. Kara cried out for Cat, afraid, untethered from normal reality, and suddenly there she was. Her hand between them, anchoring Kara’s body, Kara’s pleasure, and her own, and Kara’s legs wrapped around her tight, suddenly here was Cat, kissing her, adoring her, and purring praise upon her.

                “A little more, Beautiful, give it all to me, come for me,” Cat groaned in her ear, like a feverish prayer. Her shoulder pushed up against Kara’s lips as her arm tensed and plunged her fingers in again, harder and faster as she continued to scream. In the storm, Kara’s teeth found Cat’s shoulder and closed down upon it.

                Christalmighty she was strong! Cat winced first from the pressure of her legs tightening like steel bands around her, but did not let up for a second. Then she felt Kara’s teeth sink into her as though she were made of cream, but in the midst of her own, lesser, but shattering climax, she barely felt it. She barely registered anything anymore, save for the sensation of Kara letting go and losing control around her.

                There was a groaning noise that was inhuman that Cat originally tuned out, until a sharp crackling and hard snap followed it. She looked up, over Kara’s head where her hands were bound, even as the girl convulsed around her, and watched first as the ropes shredded like wet paper.

                “What—”

                And now, in Kara’s bare hands, hands which had so recently caressed and loved Cat’s body so well, the headboard, made of thick hardwood and metal, twisted, tore, and cracked like chalk and so much twine. There was no time to assess danger as Kara was still climaxing and Cat was unwilling to quit, but now, as she reached her highest point and spiraled downward into formless bliss, Cat realized how poorly she had underestimated the true threat of Kara’s fear of hurting her.

                Alas. It was too late now, and she, along with Kara, fell into a deep exhausted slumber that bordered unconsciousness.

 

 

 


	3. Unmasked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It would be comical if it weren't so painful, but Cat finds that she has an exclusive that she can never exploit. She came into this thinking she was in control, only to find a fierce, benevolent goddess in her bed. Something has begun.

Cat waited for her heartbeat to return to something resembling normal before she turned to her faintly glistening, trembling bedmate. “So…” she began, more awkwardly than she ever imagined possible, “You’re Super—”

                “I’m Supergirl yeah,” Kara cut her short in a more-than-slightly terrified rush.

                A brief silence ensued. Then, the glorious blonde goddess turned to Cat with wide cerulean eyes, worrying her bottom lip in her teeth. “Please, Ms Grant, don’t tell—”

                Cat couldn’t believe that the alluring schoolmarm she had danced with and taken to bed last night after a rather long courtship of blazing stares and searing kisses had transformed before her eyes into a truly divine specimen of both power and beauty. It was hard to accept reality. “Kara, do you honestly believe I could explain all of this away even if I wanted to?” She swept her arm to symbolically encompass the bed and everything else that had taken place. She regretted it instantly, as her body sharply protested. “I would never recover from the government overreach alone, let alone the swarms of rabble and real ne’er-do-wells who will come after you at my workplace? No ma’am, this is staying right here between us.” She raised a her finger before Kara could be overly relieved. “But I want the exclusive on everything, whenever it can be managed. Understand?”

                “Of course—”

                “And call me Cat, for godsake, Kara!” She would have gone on in a tirade that would have made her young lover blush at its explicitness, but she instead coughed, painfully. She cursed. “Kara, I think you broke one of my ribs…or ten.”

                Her eyes filled with concern and immediately she sat up, taking a second to look around, as if only just noticing the destroyed, twisted remains of the headboard littering the area surrounding the bed. “Let me look,” she volunteered, motioning for Cat to remain supine while she focused her x-ray vision. She blushed hard, looking at Cat’s nearly nude body (save for a pair of very scanty lace panties). The mogul felt herself fill with pride at seeing such an example of perfection look upon her merely human form with such reverence and lust.

                Kara looked up at last. “Nothing is broken, Cat. You do look very bruised though.” She opened her mouth again, frowning deeply again at the furious purple bruise and broken skin in the shape of her jaws on Cat’s shoulder.

                “If you apologize, I swear, Kara—oh Goddamnit! It’s like getting kicked by a horse.” She clutched her sides in pain.

                “I’m sorry!”

                “Save it,” Cat hissed. “I can handle it. Do you think I would still be lying here with you if I was that angry?”

                “Well, I mean it would be hard to move if you’d punctured a lung—”

                “Damnit, Kara!” Cat growled, “I’m so keyed up right now, I wish to God I could have you again. Believe me I want it more than I can stand.” She paused to breathe. “But it’s going to have to wait…because I don’t think I can stand.”

                Kara made a motion as though to fix the glasses that Cat had snatched off her face and discarded somewhere in their impassioned stumble toward the bedroom the night before. A nervous habit, Cat decided.

                “I’ll take good care of you,” Kara promised, “I am so…so sorry.”

                “See that you do,” Cat murmured. “Good thing I’m the boss.” She let Kara tuck her under a blanket now. “And Kara?”

                Kara paused in her search for her own unmentionables, demurely hiding her breasts behind a pillow case as though Cat hadn’t ravaged every inch of her already. “Yes Ms Gr—Cat?” She amended.

                “Do you…want this?” Cat couldn’t meet her eyes at first, but forced herself to. “Do you still want me?”

                Now, it was Kara’s turn to sigh and look a little perturbed, if a little relieved. Shyly, she laid the pillowcase down on the dented bedpost and crawled up to her from the foot of the bed, coyly now. She looked Cat very seriously, trembling in time with the electricity between them. “Cat,” she began in gentle sincerity, “I would never have set foot in this place, had I not wanted it.” she lowered her face, and kissed her deeply, sweetly. With a bit of lightheadedness, Cat Grant felt her heart melt like so much ice in the face of the warm yellow sun.


	4. Intimate Knowledge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara has been dropping in twice a day to help Cat with work stuff, take coffee and food orders, etc. The usual. However, Cat is nearly healed and definitely getting a bit impatient to continue to grow their relationship on all levels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I live a fairly repressed life nowadays (aside from my writing, which is anything but), I want my characters to experience things that are really fun. Sometimes in real life, just talking about said things gets awkward or impossible, but I think Cat is experienced and direct enough to blast right through all the layers of social niceties. Kara on the other hand is young and ostensibly horny enough to be open to learning and growing. Also, I have a new Lush bathbomb that I am DYING to use, but because I am in the process of moving, it will have to wait. Since I identify so strongly with Cat, I suppose I can just give it to her, and she can enjoy it for me.

“Tell me your name?”

                Kara looked up from the marble topped kitchen island where she was plating some of the most decadent sushi ever produced by Master Jiro’s three-Michelin Star restaurant in Japan. Her boss-slash-lover-slash-convalescent patient, Cat Grant was reclined uneasily on her huge over stuffed leather couch in the living room beyond the kitchen.

                “You know my name,” Kara feigned ignorance, bringing the dish around to the TV tray set at Cat’s side. She presented it with a flourish. “Though I have no idea why you always pretend you don’t. Kiera, Cora, Cara, Keisha, when you’re feeling especially obtuse.”

                Cat winced as she sat up and accepted a pair of chopsticks. Her ribs and other miscellaneous injuries had not healed enough for her to return to work, even after a over a week. “Now who’s being especially obtuse, _Supergirl_? I mean your real name. I want to know.” She patted the area beside her and Kara sat down, tucking her feet beneath herself as she delicately nibbled on a divine veggie wrap from just down the street. It was sometimes nice to eat food that didn’t necessitate flying.

                “Kara Linda-Lee Danvers,” she replied slowly, between bites.

                This of course irritated Cat enough to poke her in the arm with her un-separated chopsticks. She frowned deeply at the younger woman. “Hey.” She looked gratified as Kara shifted up from her own meal and looked her in the eye. Impatiently, Cat reached up and plucked Kara’s ridiculous glasses off of her face. “Tell me. I want to know.”

                There was so much hesitation that Cat was sure she would be disappointed. Kara was still so secretive about herself. However, as she swallowed and squared her shoulders toward Cat, a different being suddenly sat before her. The Kara she knew sort of melted away and what remained was National City’s resident hero, Supergirl. It was a subtle change, not at all as sophisticated as shape changing, but more like a dropping of a veil, a tensing and tightening, and a focused quality that was hard to describe.

                In a low, serious voice, without breaking eye contact, she replied at last. “I am Kara, of Argo City, daughter of Allura and Zor-El, Cousin of Kal-El, and last daughter of Krypton.”

                It sent shivers down Cat’s spine to be the object of such unwavering attention. It was the visage of a veritable titan, and almost in no way the young woman she had been bossing, wooing, and very recently, bedded. If she was being uncharacteristically transparent and honest, she would have admitted that it was frightening. While for a short time she had kicked herself for being so incredibly, well, obtuse, for not recognizing Kara much sooner, she realized that there was no way she would have. No one had. Yes, yes, it was simple psychological fact that the human brain could not have processed the mundane into the fantastic. Sure, but the fact also remained that Kara was distinctly different. She vibrated with a distinguishable frequency that did not feel human in a biological sense, even if she remained equally alluring. It further surprised Cat that she wasn’t nearly as attracted the the Super version of Kara as the regular version. She had always prided herself as loving power in any form, the bigger the better, but in this case, she found herself always trying to reconcile the alien with the familiar, and looking forward to seeing the latter show up at her door.

                Kara rolled her eyes in a self-deprecating way, breaking the moment. “I know…so cheesy. But really, I’m just me.”

                Cat was too confused by a mishmash of feelings, both old and new, to disagree. Instead, she struggled to use her chopsticks with her left arm. Her right had not only sustained a super powered bite, courtesy of the non-mundane version of her dinner companion, but her rotator cuff, elbow, and various tendons had also been “gently” tested.

                “So, when I walked into your room, I noticed your headboard’s already replaced. That was fast. How did you explain—”

                Cat smiled to herself. “I told my doctor and the insurance company that I was the victim of a burgulary gone a little to the dramatic side. Luckily Supergirl stopped by just in time to save me.”

                Kara almost spit out her drink. Her eyes were wide. “You’re kidding me right?”

                Cat shrugged. “No, why? They bought it. It’s sort of true. Kind of.”

                Groaning, Kara hid her face in her hands. “My boss is going to kill me!”

                Confused, Cat crooked an eyebrow in her direction. “ _I’m_ your boss. What do you mean?”

                “My _other_ boss,” Kara muttered.

                “Hot damn, you _are_ working for the government aren’t you? Is it the Department of Metahuman Affairs? The CIA? Hey, Kara, I have the exclusive on this. You promised. Spill. I want names and everything else you can muster.” Almost forgetting her pain for the moment, Cat turned and looked around for some scrap paper on which to jot notes.

                Kara shook her head. “No way, Cat. That’s stuff I can’t speak about, even if you tortured me. Look, I’m sorry,” she frowned when she saw Cat’s disappointed face, “but if someone tortured you for information, a lot of people could die.”

                “Kara, I already know things that any number of people and…non-people would kill for,” Cat reminded her solemnly.

                “Look, I just can’t do it. Just like I can’t tell you who Superman is—and yes I know. And yes, I can tell that you’re trying to work it out right now, but really, stop. I won’t confirm or deny it. I can tell you things about myself. You can cite an exclusive interview. If anyone ever tries to hurt you to get to me, just let them have me. Sell me out. I don’t care. But I can’t let that spill over into hundred or thousands of innocent people.” Kara’s eyes were full of tears, envisioning the disaster of exposed identities alone. Cat realized, not for the first time, that this wasn’t some sort of godling’s fieldtrip for her. Mortals were so trivial to her in terms of power, but not at all when it came to connection.

                _She’s really human_ , Cat realized, and this softened her resolve to dig for information at all costs. “Kara, I respect you. I won’t push you any more for things like that. You can tell me if and when you’re ready.” She laid her hand on Kara’s which had closed into a fist at her side. There was that crackling energy that was subtly different from her usual, but gradually, it subsided, like a radio tuning back to another station, and once again there was innocent, happy-go-lucky “Sunny D”.

                Kara was taken aback by Cat’s hand now pulling her close. “I can’t really move,” she whispered, before their lips met, chastely, sweetly. “Thank you.”

                Kara blinked twice and smiled, showing her teeth a little. “It’s my pleasure.”

                “I didn’t mean for dinner,” Cat informed her, a little teasing, and a little bit scolding.

                “I meant everything,” Kara assured her, dropping another kiss on her cheek, before clearing their dishes. “I’ll wash up. Do you want me to help you to bed?”

                Cat sighed. “What makes you think I wanted to go to bed? It’s not even ten o’clock yet.”

                Kara shrugged as she threw away the disposables and washed glasses in the sink. “I stopped by at six-thirty this morning and you were already working.”

                “I’m injured, not dead,” Cat replied as means of explanation, “Stories need to get proofed and approved, and I still have tele-meetings either way. I’m busy busy busy.”

                “You’ve been busy, busy, busy for a week when you’re supposed to be resting. You can barely—whoa!” Kara nearly dropped a plate when she saw Cat rise, a little defiantly, and immediately stumble, clutching her side.

                “Ugh, my hero,” Cat muttered when Kara caught her and lifted her in her arms from across the room. “I really can walk you know, Kara. I walk all the time that you aren’t here.”

                “Apologies, m’lady,” Kara acquiesced, letting her back onto her feet.

                Cat coughed once, and it hurt like a sonofabitch, but she tried not to wince. Weakness was not a thing she was accustomed to showing to anyone, even lovers—especially lovers. “I’m just tired. I’ll be back in the office on Monday, but I’m going to take the weekend. I appreciate your help—”

                “You demanded my help,” Kara interjected helpfully.

                “—but I want to get back to the non-professional aspect of our relationship,” Cat finished with a glare that had no bite whatsoever.

                Kara’s eyebrows shot up at this. “Oh? So where should we start then?”

                “Take me to bed,” Cat purred, “but not for that, not just yet,” she amended, seeing Kara’s slightly apprehensive, very worried,  look, “I’ve been working for twelve hours. I just want to lie down. Maybe take a bath. I’m so sore. I want to chat more though, get to know each other a little.”

                Obediently, Kara lifted Cat again into her arms and carried her like the queen she was down the hallway to her most private sanctum.

 

                “I’m not sure this constitutes a typical date activity, Ms Grant,” Kara observed.

                “Nothing about our relationship is typical, Kiera,” Cat replied, not bothering to open her eyes. “You’re free to decline, of course.”

                “I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Kara replied soothingly, “It’s just not what I expected.”

                Kat’s tub was filled almost to the brim with steaming hot water, epsom salt, and aromatic bubble oil which created a nearly opaque covering of foam. Kara was sitting behind her on a low stool, admiring her bare shoulders and neck while massaging shampoo into her fine, silky tresses.

                “I would be overjoyed to return the favor when I’m healed,” Cat murmured. “Mm that feels so good.”

                “Really?”

                “I always give as good as I get, Kara, you should know that.”

                Kara smirked as she cradled Cat’s head and neck and carefully poured water to rinse her hair with a cup. “I wasn’t doubting you. It’s just counterintuitive to imagine you pampering me. Or anyone.”

                One eye opened languidly in mild unspoken offense.

                “Children excluded, Cat,” Kara smoothed ruffled feathers instantly.

                “You’re actually not wrong,” Cat sighed. “Men are so simple. They have so little patience for… this… I learned that a little too late. But I don’t think anyone is like you.”

                “No one is like anyone, Cat,” Kara replied while she let her fingers massage down her neck, which was filled with tension from a day of working at home even harder than she might at the office.

                “That’s not what I meant.”

                Now her hand found the terrible bruise that still hadn’t faded on her shoulder, ringing two scabbed-over semi circles that, if cast, would have matched Kara’s jaws perfectly. Her heart clenched. She bent her head and kissed it apologetically, reverently.

                Cat reached back with her left hand and stroked Kara’s hair. “It doesn’t hurt,” she lied easily.

                She felt Kara’s lips twist into a frown against her. “Except when you’re breathing.”

                “You can’t be perfect all the time,” Cat assured her, “and I asked for this. Just like I’m asking you if you want to join me now.”

                “I’m not as simple as a man,” Kara whispered in Cat’s ear.

                “I would never dream about making such an insinuation,” Cat replied with feigned offense, “It’s not about sex, Kara. I’m asking because this tub is quite large and I imagine it might be fun. No pressure.”

                Without opening her eyes again, Cat knew that Kara was hesitating, worrying her bottom lip with the teeth that had scarred her, weighing the responsible answer with the one she wanted. It would be so easy for Cat to tip the scales or even force the decision in her favor, but she didn’t. Kara needed to learn to do this on her own. She had the feeling that the young superhero had lived a life of great restriction, and more people telling her “no” than “yes”.

                Gently, she felt Kara’s hands leave her, and gone was the faint sensation of her breathing. Cat shifted and opened her eyes.

                “Close them!” Kara begged. “This is so embarrassing.” The tails of her blouse had pulled free and a few buttons had been undone.

                “Holy Toledo!” Cat yelled, rising now way too fast. She swore viciously at the pain but gritted her teeth to bear it while snatching the blouse, which was just within her reach.

                “Hey!” Sure enough. Under the demure black button down and pencil skirt, Kara Danvers was wearing the Supergirl costume.

                Cat’s mouth opened in an expression of gleeful surprise. “No way am I missing this. Whoa! The transformation in progress? This is rich. I wish I had a camera.”

                “Do you _mind_? How else was I to fly around and get sushi from a place that doesn’t exactly do take-out?” Kara pleaded, the almighty S-shaped crest of the House of El dropping hastily to the floor with everything else. “I wasn’t exactly expecting a pool party.”

                “In this business, you should be expecting everything and anything,” Cat teased her, holding out a hand to guide her into the tub.

                Kara was breathless at the sight of Cat’s small, perfect breasts having been revealed. It was mortifying that her body instantly responded when she absolutely could not go there right now. Forcing herself to look slightly away, she let Cat draw her into the hot water.

                “Don’t be ashamed,” Cat told her calmly. “I’m not.” Casually, she raised her leg and placed it in Kara’s lap to massage.

                “You’re perfect,” Kara sighed, her strong fingers tracing a path up the Achilles and up into the calf.

                “Now that’s a lie, Girl Scout.”

                “You are!”

                Cat chuckled. “No, you are perfect. I’m close but hey, I’m old. What can I say? Good thing you can’t see my stretch marks from—oh my god you can, can’t you?” She shifted and made gestures under the water that seemed to hide her belly.

                “Well not if I’m being polite, which I usually am,” Kara reminded her. “But I can feel them.” Her hands had slipped quickly under Cat’s and fingers now teased their way down Cat’s lower ribs, over her belly and sides. “I’ve seen you almost naked. They’re not bad at all, Cat. I didn’t even notice them at first. Don’t be ashamed. I’m not.” Her smile was disarming, like an angel’s.

                “I live in an extremely fashion and body-conscious reality,” Cat grimaced, “and even on my best day, I never ever looked like you.”

                “There’s not so much to be said about being me,” Kara replied, unconcerned, holding her hands.

                “You say that because you _are_ you,” Cat pointed out, “Like how fair is it that you have such wonderful muscles and such perfect breasts? I mean really, it’s so unfair it’s obscene.” She looked down at herself wistfully. “I actually had the opposite problem that many women do. I was always too skinny. No matter what I ate, there I was. I worked at a law firm briefly, and you wouldn’t believe the comments. So hurtful. But no one else cared because I was so ‘lucky’ to be skinny. All the criticisms about my eating habits…” she drifted off in thought, an expression of distant pain playing across her face. “I swore I would never body shame other women like that.”

                Warm hands on her cheeks brought her back to the present. Kara was smiling at her benevolently. “You’re more softhearted than I gave you credit for.”

                Cat snorted. “I’m ruthless but I’m not unprincipled. You should know that.”

                “For what it’s worth,” Kara tried again, wishing she were smoother, “I think you’re beautiful. Including your nearly non-existent stretch marks, and your more-than-substantial breasts.” They shared a real laugh at this, and Cat scooped more bubbles in front of herself, sticking out her tongue as she did.

                They had slid closer together now, with Cat’s knees bent and rising out of the water to accommodate Kara between them. She closed her eyes and moaned quietly as Kara’s warm, wet, slippery fingers trailed slowly over her skin, but conscientiously avoiding obvious erogenous zones.

                “I can’t tell if you’re right or wrong,” Kara said suddenly, never stilling, and kissing the pad of the thumb Cat used to caress her face.

                “About what?” Cat had a short memory tonight. She was engrossed fully in the present.

                “If this is about sex or not,” Kara replied, “because on one hand it is.”

                “Because you’re turned on,” Cat teased.

                Kara was beet red. “Can you blame me?” Her hands retreated down to Cat’s knees. “Look, there’s that, sure, but I can guarantee that we are not…doing it…tonight. And yet, I feel like this is even more intimate.”

                Cat shrugged like it hadn’t occurred to her. Purely affectation of course. “I’m right either way, but yes, and this is what men have no patience for. The finer points of attraction. Real seduction.”

                Kara bit her lip and then pushed forward, careful not to lay any weight on Cat, and kissed her lips first gently, and then returning for something much more forceful and laden with emotion, her tongue exploring, opening, and claiming. It lasted just a moment, but Cat felt her insides melt. “You have my undivided attention.”

                “Whoa there, Wonder Girl,” Cat eased her back, “perhaps we should transition to the bedroom?”

                “Absolutely not,” Kara insisted with a smile and another gentle kiss, “and by the way, we’re both blondes but we don’t like being called by each other’s names.”

                “Who?” Cat blinked, confused only for an instant. She pressed her lips together. “Of course. The current Wonder Girl. I forgot. Hey do you know her? Like really?”

                Kara shook her head. “Only second hand, from her half-sister. At least I think they’re related. Her dad is literally a god. Talk about pressure.”

                There were a million questions that the businesswoman and reporter in Cat wanted to fire away in a rush, but fortunately she had more pleasing, personal matters at hand with her resident inside story.

                Right now, that “story” was running her soapy hands up around Cat’s breasts and armpits, and then over the shoulders.

                “I’m nearly weightless in all this water,” Cat observed, “and I want you to touch me.”

                “Touching is fine,” Kara replied softly, “but if this isn’t just about sex, then let me see if I can resist your charms a little. I would rather do this.” She scooped Cat up gingerly so their bodies pressed together in the water and the older woman was fully supported by her.

                In response, Cat used the nearby cup and ladled water over Kara’s shoulders and then her head, not bothering to cover her eyes. She couldn’t really move enough to manage it, clumsy as she was with her non-dominate hand. She pulled a sunken washcloth she had discarded in the water early on, and began to smooth it over Kara’s arms. “There’s so much I want to do with you, Kara,” she said, trying to sound casual, but failing for the edge of arousal in her voice. “I very much enjoy this though.” Their hands touched, linked, let go slowly.

                “Tell me what you’d like to do with me,” Kara whispered, entranced by the sensation of just being touched so lovingly.

                “I want to take you with me when I travel. Stroll at midnight in Paris, gondola rides in Venice, see Osaka Castle, Tokyo Tower and historical sights by day, and luxurious love hotels at night in Japan…” Kat smiled broadly. “Oh, and the fashion week in New York, the Bolshoi Ballet…Prague…Barcelona…”

                Kara laughed. “You know we could theoretically go right now.”

                Cat shook her head. “It isn’t the same. Champagne and caviar in a private jet…I mean of course I would love to fly, but why run somewhere when you can be taken in style?”

                “I’ll keep that in mind?” Kara was distracted by how close Cat had brought her. Now her legs were wrapped fully around her so that they touched in an extremely intimate proximity. She swallowed hard.

                “Keep some other things in mind while you’re at it, Supergirl,” Cat murmured seriously.

                “Like what, Ms Grant?” Kara responded in a teasing voice, though the voltage was gradually rising between them.

                “That one day, very soon, I will be healed, and I have plans for you, which have been growing in both intensity and complexity these last six-and-a-half days,” Her eyes were like that of a predator. Kara grew wary, but not from the slightest bit of fear.

                “Promises promises,” Kara replied, attempting a casual tone, “I bet you don’t even own a… a…” she couldn’t bring herself to speak the term of the instrument with which Cat had passionately threatened her last time they had been to bed, it so she pantomimed it like an adolescent. She laughed at herself, but realized that Cat, also smiling, had a slightly evil look on her face. “Holy crap, do you?”

                Cat rolled her eyes. “I never bluff, Kara, have you learned nothing?” She fixed her pretty companion with a serious look. “By the time you’re ready for me, I’ll have found one of more modest size for how narrow you are. No need to rush to anything crazy. I know, I’m nothing if not considerate.”

                Kara’s mouth had dropped open in shock.

                Cat made a surprised face. “What? Oh come now, it’s not like I use anything crazy either. I promise. I just like the stretch. I just thought it might be intimidating for you.” Kara continued to stare with saucer-sized eyes, speechless, and blushing. Cat let her features rearrange into an overly smug expression. “Now I’ve scandalized you, poor girl. Well, help me out. This water is getting cold. Are you staying the night?”

                Kara rose, bubbles and water cascading down every plane of her body, deliciously highlighting every subtle curve. She gently picked Cat up and reached for a towel nearby in which to wrap her. “Cat, I… I didn’t bring my toothbrush or anything. I really couldn’t—”

                Cat gently smacked her on one cheek, affectionately. “Silly girl, what did I just finish telling you? In this business, you always need to expect anything and everything. There are extras beneath the sink in a box.”

                Kara bit her lip. “Well I mean, I just never meant to assume…or _presume_ …” she set Cat down on her feet gently and together they toweled off.

                “Well presume as much as you’d like from now on,” Cat replied, trying to hide her own nerves. “But whether you leave by way of the garage or the balcony, just make sure you aren’t seen. At least, not as _this_ you. It would be bad for everyone involved. Fair enough?”

                “Very fair, Ms Grant,” Kara agreed quickly, kissing her on the nose. She helped Cat slip into a short, thin, silken kimono and followed her, naked, to the bedroom. They sat on the bed, facing one another, and Cat handed her a comb.

                “Please? I can do it, but it’s a little hard to raise my arm sometimes.” She smiled as Kara began to run the instrument through her short hair. When she was satisfied, she watched Kara do the same for herself, admiring her longer, more golden, hair. It was smooth, silky, and drying very quickly. She reached out and let it fall through her fingers, longingly. “By the way, since you seem curious about…” she made a very vague gesture toward her nightstand, “why don’t you get my lotion out of the drawer there and see what else looks interesting? Thank you, sweetie.”

                Apprehensive but obedient, Kara hopped off the bed and laid the comb down on the surface beside the lamp that was there, and slowly, never once glancing over to see Cat’s barely veiled smirk of dark humor, pulled open the exquisitely finished drawer.

                She reached for the lotion as she looked within…and gasped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have fun imagining what comes next! I'm working on Chapter 5...
> 
> Also note that Wonder Girl in this fic is Cassandra Sandsmark (as opposed to Drusila or Donna Troy). I also am not currently assuming that Zeus is Diana’s father, though currently that is the direction DC has taken.


	5. Terms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Cat have a come-to-Jesus after a terrible event.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't sexy. It's kind of scary and angsty. Sorry, but I felt it was important for development purposes. I literally sat down at my computer to continue their relationship and blacked out for four and a half hours. When I came to, this chapter was written, and I hadn't eaten all day. What can I say. It spoke to me.

Kara came awake gradually in an unfamiliar darkness. Without opening her eyes she realized she wasn’t in her apartment. The radiator wasn’t making that weird clicking noise. Also, this bed was too big and comfortable to be her little twin. The sheets, similarly, were too soft and smooth. Most alarmingly, what she sleepily had imagined was a firm pillow, was not at all inanimate.

                Now she did open her eyes and shift her head from its bowed, fetal position and heard Cat make a groggy noise against the crown of her head. She had been wrapped up in her arms, her forehead against her heart. It was very early morning by the sound of the city that filtered in through the closed windows. She could see in the dark all right but she sense Cat trying to get her bearings too.

                “That’s the first time you’ve ever slept in my arms like that,” Cat murmured, slowly rousing into full consciousness.

                “I was afraid, Cat.” Kara found that her fingers were still gripping the delicate cloth of her slinky nightgown, and forced them to get go. Reality was beginning to set in, and it was harsher than she wanted to acknowledge. It was harsher than her restless, memory-fed dreams had been seconds ago. Cat replied at first only with a soft, warm rain of kisses and soothing noises against her forehead.

                “It was just a nightmare, Kara, go back to sleep,” Cat lied gently, and pulled the covers over them again.

 

One day ago…

 

                Cat had seen the gunman first.

                Kara had been blushing hard, looking down at her toes as she and her boss-slash-as-yet-undetermined-relationship-partner had been bantering in the glass office at CatCo. She had been so good at work for the months since they had first begun to have a relationship, and in the two weeks since they had actually slept together, but today she had found it hard to keep composure. All she had needed was a signature so she could send the latest documents to HR, but Cat had caught her eye and asked her to come over tonight.

                In probability she had meant for something more than a little kissing and late night take-out, as Cat had finally healed and had been sending her looks that could melt glass. Kara had been hesitant to accept that particular invitation for many reasons, not the least of which was the result of the first and last time they had been so passionately engaged. Cat had been blithe and dismissive, but whenever she was unclothed, Kara faced the reminder of her loss of control in the form of the permanent scar on her shoulder. It was a source of unending guilt, even if she wasn’t just nervous for other normal reasons.

                Like sleeping with her boss.

                Like being in an undetermined relationship with her boss while also sleeping with her boss.

                Like starting to suspect that she had more than feelings of simple attraction to said boss.

                Like starting to worry that maybe the same boss might not have the same feelings for her.

                Like simultaneously worrying that maybe her boss—Cat, damnit, she corrected herself—might actually have the same feelings. Would that be even worse than not? She wasn’t sure.

                There were many concerns. Therefore, Kara could not help but look down and adjust her glasses and giggle like a schoolgirl when Cat had teased her with the prospect of an exciting evening. Only the subtle noise of collective gasps cued her in to anything being amiss. Her head snapped up and she saw Cat’s eyes cut over to something beyond her shoulder. Her back was turned. What was it? She had been caught unaware, and as such didn’t plant her feet fast enough before Cat’s arm swept her out of the way.

                She spun around in a fragmented second before she hit the ground but the first bullet had already been fired. It was breaching the glass in her moment of inactivity. She didn’t recognize the young man in the camel colored coat who had pulled a modified AR-15 out in the middle of the office. Most people had gone out for lunch, including Winn, thank goodness, but she saw, in a blur, the looks of horror on the bystanders’ faces. This also meant the odds of her being exposed was nearly a hundred percent.

                Planting a foot, she spun around instead and kicked Cat’s desk enough to drop her backward, out of the direct line of fire. He was firing again, and again though. Now there were four bullets in the air, and she wasn’t quite as fast as Clark or Diana. The first two were harmless. The third was a little wide, glancing off the glass, but it too would lodge in concrete rather than flesh. That just left the fourth. The moment was stretched before her and she didn’t have to really think. All her training recently was paying off. The fourth bullet was going straight at her.

                With a roar of fury, Kara clenched her fist and punched the last bullet, pulling back only at the last moment. As it was, the damage was substantial. The bullet itself squished like clay under its own inertia impacting the force of the blow, and partially came apart. The largest fragment whipped back with the sound of a sonic boom, penetrated the glass with a crash, impacted the gunman in the shoulder and threw him backward.

                 Kara leaped forward now, eyes only for the attacker, and ready to interrogate him while hanging him out the nearest window. Actually, screw the interrogation. Maybe she would just toss him over the edge and figure the rest out later.

 

                Security was bursting into the room. They must have been hot on his heels, but just about two seconds too late. She was about to disregard them and punch this asshole’s lights out through a few feet of concrete when she noticed the glaring red eyes on one of the guards. Defiance flared in her heart, but her better judgment won out and in the end, she paused long enough for them to jump on him and subdue him.

               

                Cat Grant’s only thought as she had seen the weapon being drawn behind her beloved Kara’s back was to get her out of the way. In hindsight, she realized how stupid this was, but in that moment she hadn’t seen a superhero, but rather a young woman who meant more to her than she had been able to express. In vain she had reached out to clear her from danger, and had seen the muzzle flash directly across from her.

                _I’m going to die_ , was Cat’s last thought before suddenly she had been smashed by something hard—her desk, she later realized—and fallen beneath the hail of gunfire and shattering glass, and the ensuing chaos of security bursting in, Kara screaming like a banshee, and everything else.

                Then, she had reached out to where she saw Kara kneeling in front of her, crying out for her, not caring about the broken glass that cut her hands and knees, caring even less who saw her take hold of her and kiss her until she was sure she was really safe.

                She never got there though, because suddenly people surrounded them and they were ripped apart. A man she did not recognize but whose voice seemed weirdly familiar, told her that she and Kara needed to be taken for medical attention.

                “I don’t need the fucking hospital!” Cat had shrieked at him. “Let me through! Let me see Kara!” But bodies had closed like a wall between them and there was nothing she could do.

                The building evacuated and she did not see Kara again. At home, safe, covered in bandaids and cursing, she had finally, hours later, received a single enigmatic call from a woman who claimed to be Kara’s sister, assuring her that Kara was just in shock but would be all right.

                Before she could ask questions, the line went dead. In a frantic rage, she had thrown her phone. Whoever that was, whether it was Alex Danvers or not, she had no legal means of pursuing Kara without blowing her cover. She had no idea if they knew who she was, though she suspected that whoever had called was providing the cover story. That meant two things. One, was that they had Kara and knew about her secret identity. The other, was that they did not know that Cat knew. She couldn’t decide if this was advantageous or not, but given the circumstances, she chose to wait and trust that Kara was going to handle it.

                As she tossed back some brandy in her lavish living room, scanning news outlets for any further clues about the day, her fingers trembling against the cold glass, she swore that she would not be too patient. If Kara did not appear within a day, god help her, there would be war until she was found.

 

                Kara was in a lead cell no larger than six-by-six. “Let me out!” She screamed. Her fists were hail and thunder against the walls which rang like a bell. They dented but did not yield. She was underground and the cell was thicker than a battleship’s hull. Her gaze grew warmer in an instant, and then searing hot as lasers issued forth from her eyes, slicing everywhere she looked, all around herself, in search of the smallest weakness. She blew on the reinforced metal screws, which were red-hot from her eyes, and when they seemed frozen, drove her fists into them to shatter them. She would tear herself out of here inch by inch if that’s what it took.

                Before she could strike again, the wall split into a seamlessly fit door and through it came her sister, who ducked instinctively as Kara flew at her before realizing. “Alex!” she cried. Her pretty sister held her tightly and rocked her back and forth.

                “Kara, I need you to calm down and I’ll explain, okay? I’m here. It’s okay. Everything is fine.”

                “Alex, Cat—”

                Alex pushed her out to arm’s length swiftly and fixed her with a look that bade her shut up, fast. “Ms Grant is fine. But J’onn wants me to tell you that you risked exposure with that little stunt, and moreover, the suspicion is that you were going to kill that man.”

                “He shot at me!” Kara shrilled.

                “No,” Alex shook her head firmly, “He shot at Cat Grant. He is a member of a terrorist group who hates metahuman sympathizers. This world is changing and they can’t change with it. They wanted to make a statement, and killing a woman who recently won the Pulitzer for her exclusive on metahuman affairs? That’s a hell of a big statement. But it had nothing to do with you.”

                “It had _everything_ to do with me!” Kara snapped. “Literally everything! It would be my fault. Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

                “Kara, I am telling you to give you perspective, is all, and hopefully, as our boss would say, wisdom. That’s why I’m here instead of him. You were hysterical when they extracted you. It took everything they had just to get you down here.” Alex was rubbing her forearms and trying to be sisterly but Kara’s blood was a rush in her ears.

                “You guys used kryptonite gas on me, didn’t you,” her eyes narrowed with deep suspicion.

                Alex’s eyes were wide. “I wasn’t even here, Sis. Don’t look at me. But yeah, that’s what happened. The wisdom from the top was that you needed to chill out here until I arrived.”

                Kara cursed with uncharacteristic viciousness, such that Alex’s eyebrows raised.

                “Kara, they have him in custody and they are dealing with it, but you need to calm down or they won’t approve your release.” Alex tried again.

                “What am I, a prisoner?” Kara snarled. “I want to see—” she cut herself short as Alex’s eyes went wide in warning. They were being surveilled. Of course. “I want to see Mom! Take me home, Alex!”

                Alex nodded,  opening the door, and motioning for Kara to follow. There was a locker system against the wall. She opened one cabinet and inside were Kara’s personal affects like her glasses, phone, and purse. “Sure. That sounds like a good idea, Kara, but they want to tell you—”

                “I’m going to fly there. Let’s go. You can come too. I’ll carry you—”

                “Wait, Kara.”

                “Alex, I need my suit. Where is it? Is it in the training area?”

                Alex made an uneasy grimace that had Kara’s blood pressure rising again. “Kara, effective immediately, you’re grounded. Just while they figure some stuff out. They don’t want to antagonize the terrorist cells into greater acts of violence. There’s still a lot we don’t know.”

                “How long?” Kara growled petulantly.

                Alex made a helpless shrug. “Until further notice. So…yeah. Lie low, whatever you do, okay?”

                Alex knew the look on Kara’s face. It was one of calculation and reason. It could be good or bad for the orders they had been given, but she had said her piece in all of this. If Kara was smart, she would stay out of trouble and retain some of her freedom.

                “Got it Alex,” Kara replied, a little coldly. “Can you drive me home please?”

                “Sure, kiddo,” Alex smiled, and hugged her sister again, relieved that Kara seemed to be softening, at least to her. “I love you. I’m proud of you.”

                “Love you too, Alex.”

 

                Cat stared moodily into the empty bottle of brandy in front of her, and lamented that she did not feel its effects at all. Her mind was too sharp, too strong, too focused to be dulled right now. It was about a minute to midnight, and she had compiled a list of phone numbers and an action plan that would begin to go into effect at about eight o’clock EST.

                There was a gentle breeze coming in from the open window that intensified almost imperceptibly. Her reflexes were slightly slowed, but she instinctively reached for the antique rapier that hung within the open display case to her right while she turned.

                Because it was dark in the penthouse, she didn’t immediately see the figure standing there, until she stepped into a beam of moonlight and stood in silhouette, her short cape drifting gently.

                “Kara?”

                At first, she didn’t answer, only rose very slightly from the gold-veined marble floor and drifted to her side like a ghost. As her eyes adjusted more to the ambient light, Cat realized that Kara was not wearing her usual outfit. It was cut almost the same and had the same texture and probably a similar tensile quality, but rather than crimson and blue, it was as though all the color had been drained from it. What remained was a suit as black as night, with the crest of El gleaming cold silver upon her chest.

                She didn’t have time to question much, though, because suddenly Kara’s arms locked around her in a bear hug and she could barely breathe from the pressure as well as her own tears which now flowed freely. “I didn’t know where you were. I was so worried,” she whispered, and was silenced by Kara’s mouth on hers, desperate, and hot.

                “I’m sorry,” Kara murmured finally, when they parted.

                “What are you wearing?” Cat wondered, a million thoughts running through her head.

                Kara chuckled without humor. “Let’s just say I commissioned this old thing as a precaution. I knew this would happen at some point. I’m grounded, Cat. They want me to just be Kara Danvers. Nothing super until they fully assess the threat.”

                “That man today, did he know?” Cold dread was creeping down Cat’s spine.

                Kara shook her head. “No, he was…he was aiming at you.”

                “Oh thank God,” Cat breathed in relief.

                “What the hell do you mean?” Kara cried out, grabbing her by the arms, a little painfully. “Cat, you have a young son! You’re happy a frickin terrorist shot at _you_ instead of _me_?”

                Cat shrugged. “My baby boy is safe with his father right now. My older son is in Europe. Who am I compared to Supergirl? I mean really. Bigger picture.”

                “No!” Kara yelled, “No picture! Needless picture. Has the fact that I am bullet proof slipped your memory recently? Who the hell cares who shoots at me?”

                “And had they been Kryptonite bullets? Had they known who you were? Then what?” Cat asked quietly, composed. “Look, Kara,” she stopped her before she could protest more, “in that moment it didn’t really matter, okay? I didn’t see Supergirl. I just saw you. My body moved on its own. You still have your whole life ahead of you and I just…wow… I just couldn’t imagine that it could be over.”

                “Bulletproof,” Kara repeated again, petulantly, through clenched teeth.

                Cat shrugged again. “Maybe it’s maternal instinct. Chalk it up to that. If that’s not enough, maybe it’s just me getting old.”

                “Would you stop that? You’re not old. Ice queens like you live forever. You always remind me of that fact every time dumber reporters try to act like you’re passé.”Kara rolled her eyes.

                “Hah. True.”

                “And what does it matter, Cat? You could have been killed. What does any of this matter in that case?” Kara’s voice was breaking in the darkness, and Cat reached out without thinking to brush her tears away.

                “Don’t say that. You know it isn’t true,” she responded evenly, even as she felt Kara’s arms wrap around her again.

                “Cat, I came here to break up with you,” Kara announced suddenly, “or whatever it means to end what we’re doing.”

                “What—” That feeling of dread was back, a cold, nauseating sweat that made the ground seem to drop away. Cat looked up into Kara’s face, and could barely make it out.

                “I kept thinking on my way here… no one knows about you. They would hate to learn that you’re in on my secret. You’re in danger knowing, and you’re in danger being near me. You’re either a target or a security risk.” Kara said in a flat voice, like a kid reading from a script.

                Cat’s fist knocked against Kara’s collarbone with a low thud. “Is that all?” She hissed defiantly. “And here I thought it was because you didn’t like sleeping with the boss because it violates our Sexual Harassment Policy.”

                “Well there’s that too.”

                “You’re fired then!” Cat snarled. “I don’t care about the rest of it. Don’t do this.”

                “Cat, I just…I’m not trying to be an asshole.” Kara began again.

                “Well you’re giving me a run for my money, so good job,” Cat snapped.

                “Cat, please don’t. I don’t have enough willpower to say it again. You mean more to me than my own life. Do you understand? I can’t just play games with you, if this is what this is. I can’t bear the responsibility. I can’t justify it.” Kara’s hands were hard on her hips, like a statue.

                “I mean so much to you that you would break my heart and think that whatever happens after that is acceptable consolation?” Cat raged, at first seeming about to push her away, but instead fisting both hands in the barely yielding fabric of her top. “Who do you think you are? While we’re at it, who do you think I am? Someone who would play with her hot little assistant and drop her when shit got a little real?”

                Kara didn’t answer immediately.

                “Okay, maybe that’s not readily apparent given my track record in relationships,” Cat allowed, annoyed, “but I don’t exactly sleep around with people I work with, especially assistants.”

                “Cat, I’m not trying to disparage you, but it’s more than ‘a little’ real.”

                “You bet your ridiculously toned ass it is,” Cat shot back. “Are you trying to get me to tell you I love you, you dense little girl?”

                “No, but Cat—”

                Her voice lowered so that only super hearing could pick it up. “I was your _first_ , Kara. For Christsakes, I’ve been trying to orchestrate…I mean... I was wanting to... You must think I’m truly reprehensible if you thought I would engage in that without real feelings.” Her cheeks were aflame and she was glad Kara probably didn’t notice.

                “Cat,” Kara’s voice was thick with emotion, “I’m trying to do the right thing here. Be responsible. Be safe.”

                “Safe for you is fine, and I respect that,” Cat replied, choking back a torrent of emotions to sound reasonable, and deciding to just go for broke with this. She sensed it might be her last chance. “But it will shatter me. I love you, Kara. I don’t know anything else. I literally have no idea how this is going to work, but I do know that. It’s real for me, and I want you to know that if you’re going to walk away from me right now.”

                There was silence between them long enough for Cat to feel antsy. Kara lived in a world of “no” she reminded herself. All the restrictions and expectations. How many people choked out Kara in order to create a better Supergirl? How selfish was this world? Cynicism was one of Cat’s closest companions. This was the broken world she had lived for decades before Kara had come to Earth. No wonder.

                “If something happens to you because of me…” Kara was in tears again, and Cat could not remain controlled. She pulled her face close and kissed away her tears until she could speak again. “Cat, I would die.”

                “Say what you feel,” Cat coaxed her, “don’t hold back with me anymore. Just say it.”

                “I’m in love with you,” Kara whispered, like smoke into the chilly night air. “And today when we were talking…I was going to say yes.”

                The atmosphere seemed heavy and laden with so much more left unspoken and the implications of what had been shared.

                “You weren’t sure of my feelings,” Cat attempted to make sense of it.

                “I was deciding that it didn’t matter. My feelings are clear, and I trust you. I guess I was just going to let everything else…work out.” Kara shrugged sheepishly.

                “You are so stupid sometimes,” Cat replied, exasperated, but feeling relief chasing away all the negative emotions.

                “Human is not my first language,” Kara defended herself as Cat lead her down the hallway.

                “Excuses excuses.” Cat turned to her now. “It’s so late. Are you staying tonight?”

                Kara shrugged. “I mean, I’ve been here almost every night recently.” She smiled as Cat pulled her down into the sheets and began searching for seams in her suit.

                “Just say yes,” Cat sighed as she wrapped the now half-naked Kara in the kimono she had hung on the bedpost earlier. 

                Fatigue was replacing adrenaline and every conceivable emotions that Kara had experienced that day. She mindlessly let Cat fold them under the blanket. “Yes,” she muttered.

                “Good girl,” she heard Cat reply in the soft shadows as she closed her eyes. She felt arms pull her into an embrace and bowed her head against her chest where she could both hear and feel her steady heartbeat. “Sleep now. We’ll talk more in the morning, my love, okay?” A warm hand was stroking the crown of her golden head.

                Kara’s response was wrapped in a gentle glow of love that burned like a little coal in her chest.    “Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Better things ahead. But then again, things tend to improve when one DTRs (Defines The Relationship)
> 
> A note on the costume. Many years ago, basically in a past life, I won a small heroclix tournament in my town and was awarded Black Costume Supergirl as a prize. (If memory serves me, it was 300 points max, draft. My team ended up being a vet Mon-El and a speedster from the same block. Johnny Quick perhaps?) Anyway, not that anyone cares, but I have always loved that costume and figure because it relates to a very triumphant moment in my life when I was at the height of nerdom. So that's why I'm so excited to use a black suit variant. 
> 
> A note on typos. Argh. In my excitement, I still miss them. I periodically go back and correct them though. Sorry about that.


	6. Body and Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat gets what she wants, and more and more and more. Kara loses consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's fuck. Why not? It will be more than fun.  
> I didn't really intend for this chapter to be the way that it is, but once again, I sat down with some notes and went out of my mind for about four-and-a-half hours nonstop, and when I blinked back into reality, here it was.  
> I am trying to incorporate some of the canon (tv show), as well as some larger DC universe details, but in this little AU of mine, the characters are doing largely their own thing.

 

 

“I think we should tie you up.”

                Kara turned from admiring Kat’s new headboard with a look of great confusion. “ _Excuse me_?” She hadn’t had a chance to really admire the replacement in natural light, so that’s what they had been doing. Both of them were dressed as they had been for work, Kara in a knee-length taupe dress with an asymmetrical collar and very gently flared skirt over kitten heels, while Cat cut a starkly different silhouette in a sharp one-piece black jumpsuit-style number with slick ebony stilettos. They were standing around inspecting the impressive sloping sleigh-style of the new head and footboard, both generously padded, finished with rich contrasting leather and studded with matching, finished buttons.

                “When we finally do it,” Cat was saying, as though they were considering matching drapes, “I think it would be helpful if we restrain you a little. We could loop the straps around the feet of the bed instead of the headboard, just there, see? It would be more secure. I’ll thank you not to break them, however.”

                “Dude, I’m not even sure how we got to this point,” Kara replied, adjusting her glasses and blushing a little, “but yeah great job on the bed, Cat. I really like it. The color is just perfect. Why did you end up going with the cushioning? Do you sit up to read?”

                Her boss-slash-now-official-if-still-secret-girlfriend grabbed her around the waist, spun her around with a short, wild laugh, and backed her against the foot of the bed, ignoring that Kara had said “dude” in her presence (a verboten phrase at work). “Sometimes, but I got it so that you’ll have something more comfortable to lean against when I have you.”

                They shared a quick kiss. “You’re like a teenager, Cat. Seriously.”

                Cat shrugged. “And you’re like a middle-aged schoolmarm. Honestly, Kara, what’s the point in me taking such a young lover if not for the insane libido you’re supposed to have?” She released her and walked into the kitchen, Kara following, rolling her eyes.

                “Well see, that is your problem,” Kara replied mischievously, “what you’re looking for is a human _boy_.”

                Cat snorted as she opened the glass front smart refrigerator and began pulling things out. A bottle of wine was first. “As if. Look, Kara, though I know I have had dalliances with men in the past—”

                “Uh and _married_ —”

                Cat narrowed her eyes and ignored her. “Young men are so insecure. Even more than grown men. They could never do to me what you do. Not to mention all that I intend to do to you.” She passed Kara fixings for salad and toed the door shut behind her while she moved to the island in the center to make a quick dressing.

                “Physically I’m sure.” Kara pointed a paring knife at her with a wink as she set to work.

                “In all ways!” Cat sighed, grinding pepper into some olive oil and garlic. “I really do love you, you know.”

                “I know,” Kara replied coyly, breaking down arugula and red onions. She was excited to be here with Cat again. It had been about a week since she’d last slept over, because Carter had been visiting. It hadn’t seemed wholly appropriate for her to fly in on their family time, at least not yet. In fact, she had stopped by once, very late, to drop off milk that Cat had forgotten to pick up, and found him sleeping in his mother’s arms like a baby in her bed. Her heart was warm at the memory, but Cat, having been asleep, didn’t know. Their relationship defied normal progression for sure, and Kara didn’t want to overstep the boundaries too much.

                “For a super powered hero, you’re sure slow at that salad,” Cat teased her, slipping past her and accidentally-on-purpose squeezing Kara’s ass. She held a large wooden bowl out for her and Kara, without looking at what she was doing, tipped the greens into it, catching also the container of sprouts that Cat, accidentally-on-purpose, abruptly upended. She smiled. “I wasn’t complaining, mind you, but any chance I get to see your powers is always a huge turn-on.”

                Kat’s lips twisted into an awkward smile, and she nudged her slipping glasses back up her nose. “Well alrighty then. Are we adding protein to this salad, Ms Grant?”

                “Absolutely, Miss El,” Cat enunciated Kara’s Kryptonian surname teasingly. “You prepped that salmon yesterday. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it last time. Let’s have it. Use the flattop if you want. Let’s order in for dessert tonight. I feel like being naughty.” She opened the fridge and handed Kara the container of salmon fillets seasoned with rosemary and garlic, then reached up to the rack up high for a knife which hung upon a magnet.

                She was a little short for it and her stool was not in reach, but without needing to be asked, her resident hero wrapped her arms around her and rose off the floor, defying gravity as easily as one might take a single step. Cat grabbed it and looked down at Kara, who was trying to look like it wasn’t a big deal.

                “You know Cat,” Kara said casually, reaching for tongs, “there’s not much point in eating a salad if we are going to be naughty right after.”

                “Would you rather we be naughty _before_?” Cat wondered innocently, pouring herself a glass of wine. She tipped it at Kara, who shook her head. She turned to the pantry and pulled out a bottle of San Pellegrino blood orange soda instead.

                Kara shrugged while Cat added ice and began to pour for her. “I have super strength but even I can tell the difference in weight,” she joked.

                Cat shot her mock angry look. “Nice try, but the one thing we share other than our amazing blonde hair, is our ability to not get fat. We eat well for the _discipline_ of it. I’ve told you, it’s important to set an example that others will follow. Also, because I have no idea how your physique really works and I assume you need vitamins and minerals beyond what you’re hoping to glean from instant ramen noodles.”

                Just being a smartass, Kara laid her hand flat upon the live cooking surface to test the temperature. It was ready. “Actually,” she explained, trying not to seem arrogant, “I’m kind of like a plant in that way. The yellow sun nourishes me. The more I absorb, the more powerful I get. I don’t need to eat. It’s purely supplemental, social, or in this case, for pleasure.”

                Cat was raiding the pantry for lightly salted almonds, one of which she fed to Kara upon discovery. “You have got to be kidding. You get hungry though right?”

                Kara shrugged. “Sure. It’s just not a dire necessity. At least not under this sun.” she accepted another almond with a kiss on Cat’s fingertip.

                “Can you fly into space?” Cat wondered. “Superman can do it right?”

                Kara shrugged. “He can, but for me? I don’t think so. Not very well anyway. Would you like me to try?”

                Cat wasn’t sure if she was bluffing. “Someone is ballsy today, but seeing as that your clandestine _secondary_ employer is probably watching orbital entry for human-shapes wearing S’s, I doubt that would be wise.” She tossed an almond in her mouth and chewed, glancing back over her shoulder at Kara. “At least, if my plan to keep you here tonight is going to work.”

                “Oh what’s that, I think I hear a structure fire on eighty-second street,” Kara joked, but her eyes betraying her as she glanced up Cat’s body. Of course, she noticed, and smiled at her knowingly, making Kara’s cheeks flame.

                “The sun is setting. I didn’t orchestrate an early Friday night for you to stand me up for civilians. Barring a nuclear misadventure, you’re staying put,” Cat purred. “Better get those calories in now.”

                Kara pointed at the cooking fish. “This is like ninety percent of our caloric intake today. Unless you’re counting that super skinny macchiato from this morning, which I do not. I’m surprised you operate without bacon and butter in your everyday life. “

                Cat chuckled. “It’s all about appearances, Kiera.” She returned for a small refill of her drink and leaned forward over the island for Kara to feed her a small bite of the salmon. “Mm. That’s great. You’re improving in the cooking department. Pull it off.” She had a second thought and circumnavigated the island over to Kara’s side, a little too close, before pulling off her plain black rimmed glasses. “Don’t wear these around me. They’re offensive both fashionably, and personally,” she informed Kara lightly. Glancing through them, she squinted dramatically. “What is up with this prescription? How are these not blinding you? They’re going to ruin your eyes.”

                Kara took a sip of her own drink before cutting up the salmon to add to the salad. “Um, well, they’re made to…dull my vision a little, and resist my heat vision slightly. Also, don’t they make a good disguise?” she was awkward tossing the salad, but with added speed, she hoped that Cat wouldn’t notice her clumsiness.

                “Why on Earth would anyone want to _dull_ their vision?” Cat demanded, handing her the decanter of fresh dressing.

                “It just takes the edge off the sharpness,” Kara explained. “They help me to not be… I guess zooming in on people and looking at every single hair on your head individually. It gives me anxiety sometimes to be talking to everyone and hearing their heartbeats and every single whisper. I didn’t learn to block out and control my senses until I was nearly a teenager.”

                “They’re so nerdy though,” Cat complained. “I mean, it works for your little look, I guess. It’s not wholly unattractive. I mean Clark used to wear—” she froze, turning the glasses over in her hand as light dawned. “Holy…” Her hazel eyes flashed up to Kara’s.

                “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies?” Kara squeaked.

                “Holy Christmas,” Cat was in disbelief. “You know that Clark and I used to date right? I’ve dated two Kryptonians? Oh that rotten Lois—”

                “I’m pretty sure it was one date,” Kara muttered.

                “ _What_?”

                “What?” Her face was the portrait of innocence, and Cat jabbed her in the ribs.

                “I heard that, brat. Oh, but how rich is this, I have the sexier of the pair of you. I’m certainly the lucky one.” Cat was so excited she seemed to almost float off the floor as Kara handed her a bowl of salad. “Let’s eat outside, come on.” Kara followed her out onto the finished balcony where Cat set her bowl and glass down on the low table and sat casually in a chair. She swore she could hear Cat’s mind ticking away. “My reality is changing every day that I spend with you,” she said to Kara seriously, taking a fork of the salad.

                “Mine is too, Cat,” Kara replied sincerely, between bites.

                “I hope you know how generous I’ve been with all your little deceptions over the time we’ve known each other. Your secret identity. Your duplicitousness. It’s necessary and therefore forgivable, but there’s a whole world I don’t know, and a whole other you with whom I am eager to get acquainted.” Cat’s words were harsh but her voice was light, rambling a little, a stream-of-consciousness web of thoughts spilling out of her mind as she processed. “You know shapeshifters,” she blurted out suddenly. “In fact I’ve met several of them. Or one of them?” Her mind was on the strange security guard whose face she had not known the other day, whose voice had seemed familiar. As much as she pretended in every public moment to be above all other humans, Cat’s situational awareness was nearly unmatched.

                Kara continued to eat, not responding, and trying to maintain her poker face.

                It was nothing to Cat now that she was on to her. “I always thought I was going crazy when you…and Supergirl… Jesus.”

                “I can’t say anything, Cat,” Kara said finally, “but you really are… very smart. It’s something I admire about you, and please know that I will never hide anything from you unless I absolutely have to.”

                “Hot damn. Am I good or what? You guys totally cheated. I understand. It’s hard to be matched against me. I’m not mad.” Cat sat back looking very self-satisfied and sipped prosecco looking very much like a feline with a canary. “We are so ordering from Gordough’s tonight. How does that sound, my love?”

                “Almost better than sex,” Kara replied eagerly, feeling thrilled at the burning in Cat’s eyes despite her affected coolness. “Get one with bacon!”

                Cat laughed out loud now. “You’re the assistant. Call it in. Use the usual account.” She tucked back into her salad while Kara put the call in to the gourmet doughnut restaurant.

                She heard Kara excitedly ordering her favorite, the Flying Pig, and Cat’s favorite, the Razzle Dazzle. She rolled her eyes. “Order one of everything if you have to, Kara, we’ve been damn good.”

                Kara hung up. “Heaven on Earth,” she sighed, ecstatically.

                “A woman of titanic responsibility and simple pleasures,” Cat teased, stroking her hair across the table. “I’ll clean tonight. Why don’t you go take a bath and we can watch Project Runway with dessert.”

                “We’re getting quite domestic, Cat,” Kara jabbed, handing her her bowl and fork, “aren’t you worried about LBD here?”

                Cat paused, one foot inside, and the other articulated midstep on the concrete outside. She narrowed her eyes at Kara. “Not any time soon, I assure you,” she growled, a feral animal inside a porcelain cage.

 

                Hours later, two decadent sweet and savory specialty doughnuts later, Cat was especially delighted to be engaged in Kara’s new favorite thing.

                “Mm,” Kara moaned as Cat let her up for air and continued kissing down her jaw and up behind her ear. “I love this. I swear it’s my new favorite thing.” She didn’t understand why Cat gave a short laugh at this. “What?” she cried out, a little defensively, but also in joy as she felt Cat’s teeth on her deltoid.

                “I love it too,” Cat bit out between soft, wet kisses down to Kara’s breasts. They were reclined against the firmly padded new headboard with pillows and such, making out topless, with Cat in the dominant position. It was a mix of everything they both enjoyed. Kara never felt totally out of control half-sitting up as she was, bolstered by the headboard and pillows, but relinquished enough of it to feel fairly uninhibited. They pressed together sensually, her yoga pants yielding to the more rigid fly of Cat’s designer cutoffs every time the older woman rolled her hips into her. Hands explored, stroked, and squeezed breasts, arms, stomachs, and sides. Cat’s fingers were lost in Kara’s hair, pulling firmly to control the direction of her head. Kara’s hands slid over Cat’s smooth back, pressing into the flesh and running over back ribs and vertebrae as she arched swayed to increase contact.

                As a pastime, Kara had come to favor this not only for its sensual application and obvious intimacy, but as a holdover for actual sex. As she brushed the scar on Cat’s shoulder, she wasn’t yet nearly as sure as Cat was that it could be done.

                She had mentioned it again, not more than two days ago, during a session not unlike this one, but on the balcony, exposed to the cool night air. Cat had showed her yet again, a mix of unusual patience and casual dismissal. “If I hated it so much, I could get it fixed you know,” she had informed Kara, “but I love it because it represents something wonderful.”

                “Being assaulted?” Kara had quailed at the sight of it, always lightly nauseous at the reminder.

                “It all depends on your point of view,” Cat reminded her, “and to me it represents your departure from your ordered little life, your trust in me, and your beautiful release. Get used to it, and learn to see it the way I do.”

                Her voice is what shook Kara back to reality. “You went somewhere else just there, Supergirl,” came the sensual rasp of her voice against her temple. “Don’t dwell on the past. Just be here with me.”

                “Yes my love.” Cat’s tongue sliding into her mouth made it hard to respond, and Kara let her dominate, floating her in a weightless sort of passion, tasting her, accepting, and desiring fully.

                “I’m ready for you,” Cat murmured against the swell of her breast now.

                “Let’s do it,” Kara responded, throwing her caution largely to the wind as she watched Cat slip out of her shorts to reveal black lace. As the older woman reached into the drawer beside the bed for an instrument of pleasure, Kara shimmied out of her bottoms and waited self-consciously amid pillows and now-rumpled bed coverings. She had seen this particular toy before and had to admit that it frightened her faintly.

                “Lift your hips,” Cat instructed her quietly, and Kara complied, eyes wide as she strapped the harness onto her, situating it low, over her most sensitive area. “It’s like a jock strap, see? It just goes under your bottom here and here and around like this. It won’t come loose and it won’t chafe you. Well, not that we worry about that anyway.”

                It was flat in front with a ring held by ripstop nylon and metal snaps. “Where’s the…” she made a gesture, embarrassed. Cat held it out for her to inspect. It was smooth to the touch with a little bit of give to it, anatomically correct in shape, but no more than six inches long, if that, and slightly curved, textured modestly, flaring into a wide base, which Cat now slid into the ring in front.

                “I can’t imagine you fitting that inside.” Kara marveled, and Cat looked a little shy, her fingers going to the barely visible striations in the flesh of her lower belly.  Kara kicked herself for her poor timing, and took hold of Cat’s hip. “Are you wet, sweetheart?’

                Cat’s eyes seemed incandescent with longing. “Why don’t you find out?” She purred, crawling up over Kara’s warm, trembling body, and situating herself over her face. She was feeling extra confident today, reading Kara’s writhing and gasping as encouragement, but even she was not ready for steely fingers to grip her hips and pull her down hard. “God you’re strong!” she cried out as Kara teased her delicate flesh viciously, manipulating it with her tongue and closing her lips around her sensitive organ, tracing its shape and structure, and sliding it in different directions with seemingly no pattern until she hit it just right. Within a few moments, Cat felt the first tremors of her orgasm rushing through her body, and with a gargantuan measure of willpower, slammed her hands on the headboard and pushed away hard.

                “Did I do something wr—”

                “Oh no you don’t. You’re not getting out of this right now,” Cat silenced her eager young lover with an agonizing kiss. “On a good day, I can definitely come more than once, but I am not about to risk this.” She stroked the toy between them as Kara backed up more against the headboard to an almost upright seated position, with Cat in her lap. “Keep your eyes open, Supergirl, I want you to witness every detail of what you do to me.”

                Kara could not have looked away even had she wanted to as she watched Cat stroke herself with the head of the toy, angle it, and slide down upon it, inch by tenuous inch, gasping as her tender human flesh stretched to accommodate it. Gradually, it swallowed the toy, all the way to the hilt where ridges bumped against her clit, eliciting a low toned whimper of delight as she took a moment for her body to adjust.  “Oh Kara, you’re inside me,” Cat groaned with a shudder, now very slowly beginning to move up and then back down in tiny thrusts, causing pressure against Kara with each repetition.

                Instinctively, Kara regained her ironclad hold on Cat’s hips, and began to gently push upward into her rhythmically, gauging her progress by the sound of her cries and progressively shallower breaths. Now, she did close her eyes, immersing herself in the full spectrum of sensory feedback, from Cat’s galloping heart, the push-and-pull tension of even the smallest muscle. The scent of her was like a drug, somewhere between what Kara imagined heroin must be like, and the feeling she had when flying. A sirensong of invitation, both heavy and light, making her mouth water such that she pulled Cat down from where she rode upright, to slip her nipple into her mouth.

                Cat was mewling a bit like a kitten, which was a most interesting and arousing sound to Kara, who added force to her suckling and licking. She felt victorious as hell as Cat’s hands came down on either side of her head and gripped the padding with white knuckled ferocity. “More,” she begged, “harder Kara, please.”

                It was easily done, and the added pressure raised Cat’s voice by degrees, as Kara pulled out and pushed in, allowing herself to let go in a moment of passion, guided by the way Cat’s pleasure seemed to drain into her through their skin, and in every messy, trembling kiss.

                It was unlike anyone else had ever been. So cliché, Cat realized, but utterly true. Sex on real love was incomparable to any cheaper variation. Even when it had conceived her beautiful sons. It had never had anything on this electricity that burst out of Kara and flooded her nerves till she buzzed with every breath and thrust.

                “This is going to require the ultimate consent when it’s your turn,” came her voice suddenly, at Kara’s ear, seeming uncommonly loud and sensual. “I can’t overcome you. It will be impossible to force this. You’re going to have to want it or it will never work.” She came down on Kara roughly now, causing her to cry out.      

                “Then it will be fine,” Kara assured her, “so come nice and hard for me so we can get to it, Cat. Oh Cat, show me how it’s done. You’re so beautiful.” It wasn’t flattery in the slightest. As they picked up the tempo together, Cat was glorious in a way that verbal expressions fell short of touching. The soft lighting of the bedroom lit the tips of her light curls as she moved, and accented the sheen of sweat that coated her lithe body.  She was all lean muscle and lush flesh, like a real feline. Kara pressed into her pelvis with her thumbs, making little circles as she drove within.

                Cat leaned back as she approached the peak, threw her head back, exposing her white throat, and called out what at first seemed a wordless exaltation but suddenly formed Kara’s name. Then, she seemed to literally snap with a broken sort of half-gasp, half-scream, with Kara’s hands anchoring them together, as deep as they could possibly go together. And now she was almost falling, losing surface layers of consciousness as she collapsed, nerveless in Kara’s arms, a great trembling ripping through her body. Kara could feel the aftershocks of internal spasms like a human never could, subtle through the silicone phallus, and the pure unadulterated physicality of it was enough to tip her over a tiny razor’s edge, making her head spin. Only when Cat’s body had relaxed, did Kara roll them over and very carefully withdraw, already craving her again.

                Forcing herself to re-enter alert wakefulness, Cat rose with her, disentangling her from the harness, and pulling the toy free of its moorings. Without looking, she reached down beside her and pulled adapted bed straps from the side table drawer. Kara’s hand landed on hers. “No,” the blue-eyed goddess told her, “I can do this. I want to feel you.”

                “As you wish,” Cat relented easily, “but let’s try it this way.” She was back in Kara’s face, sliding the length of her body against the silk-sheathed-steel of the young woman’s, admiring it, and finding now, Kara touching herself gently, opening for her in invitation. “Is it too big? I have another—” Cat pressed against the entrance and watched Kara’s face scrunch.

                “No, I want you inside me,” Kara gasped, her lips against Cat’s shoulder, kissing where her teeth had marred it.

                Cat made a gleeful mental note about Kara Zor-El’s natural little kinks, and brought her lips to her ear again. “Then, relax, and let me have you, little maiden. Show me that you’re mine alone.”

                Kara wished she had her glasses because there was heat building in her head such that she couldn’t think coherently as Cat talked dirty to her. She let her internal muscles, wound so tight with want, relax and accept this extension of her lover. In that moment when it slipped inside, it was indistinguishable from flesh, save for the subtle heartbeat that she had felt when Cat had used her fingers. She cursed first in Kryptonian, the words ripping out of her on a sob of relief and longing.

                Her legs were wrapped around Cat again, but her lover showed no apprehension, and Kara trusted herself to be safe with her. They leaned up against the bed things, but inexplicably, Kara was supported by Cat’s confident embrace. When had she slipped it into the harness? She had no idea, except that Cat was pressed up against her, corresponding parts matching as though they had been made as a joined set. Hands reached out, and held, fingers locked together as Cat began her slow thrusts, holding her down as though she were the superpowered one.

                Kara was effortless in her submission, letting Cat flood her with sensation, controlling pressure and tempo expertly, always surprising her, but never letting her off a high note for too long before delivering another. She heard herself speaking, babbling really, but in the haze of lust and undeniable affection, she had no idea what she might have said.

                Cat laughed at what she knew now to be a smattering of Kryptonian and English, and added to the symphony of desirous pleas and prayers, her own words, in French too, where her brain would supply the words, knowing that the sounds would swirl around in Kara’s super sensitive ears, creating another layer of sensory experience. Words flowed out of her now as she restrained the titan, a creature who with her gaze alone could destroy the very ground which she defied in favor of flight. It was thrilling, like base jumping, like bull running. Words to describe the experience would always fail. Graphic, erotic, tense and tender. They did not exist. But Cat knew, somewhere deep in the recesses of her often too-hard heart, that it was not her hands that held Kara now; it was her words of unfettered, soul-drenched love.

                And so it was of no great surprise (but unimaginable delight) to Cat Grant, as she felt Kara approach her climax with an easy, steady progression of thrusts. She was easily stimulated after all, Cat decided, as she drove on, murmuring appreciative encouragement against Kara’s lips, neck, and breasts.

                Kara could scarcely breathe and was glad she did not have to, or else she would have feared drowning as the waves of sensation roughly pulled her under and submerged her as though under heavy water. Anchored to Cat in a literal way, she could not escape the currents of her own pleasure, and those of her lover’s vibrating in every fiber of her being. She was utterly at the mercy of the slender human who had so fully enraptured her. It made her weep openly as she rose at Cat’s urging, and with only the meanest token of verbal resistance, plunged from wave’s crest to the abyss.

                “Be careful, I don’t want to hurt you—” Cat began as suddenly Kara pushed back against her. She was nothing in the face of her strength, of course, but as Kara found that exactly perfect spot, speed, and pressure, she found herself falling backward now as they reversed positions.

                “Come with me,” she heard Kara beg, and Cat, now on her back with Kara firmly astride, also felt herself come abruptly loose of her mental moorings as into one another, they drowned.

 

                Kara was asleep like a baby, a celestial being brought to heel by a small Earthbound female. As Cat unstrapped and climbed into the sheets, gathering up her lover in her arms, she felt inordinately proud. Powerful, yes, but more than that, fulfilled. The conquest aspect was never gone from her consciousness; it was part of her being, and she was unapologetic for it. The deepest, most vulnerable shard of her heart, however, seemed to shine with the light of Kara’s own life. It was a strange feeling that she had not ever really known in full; being bonded to another physically and spiritually.

                Exhaustion catching up with her now, Cat let herself fall away from the world and into a formless open expanse where she would find Kara again in dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Gordough's is one of my favorite places in Austin, Tx. Google them. Better yet, visit them.


	7. Higher Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat continues to open her heart to Kara. Things get a little domestic. Kara's joy inspires a higher perspective.

 

                “I love this city.”

                “I love your tofu pad thai.”

                Kara looked away from the panoramic view of the city by night off the balcony of Cat’s penthouse. She scowled at her lover, who was standing just inside the opened doors, drumming impatiently against her own crossed arms. “I’m waxing romantic, Cat, could you maybe read the room?”

                Cat glanced around where she was standing. “I’m the only one _in_ the room, and I’m getting hangry. What can I say? Romance has to get fed too.” Her words, grating and sour, were not matched by her tone, which was self-deprecating, nor her face, which was tired, but not unhappy.

                Kara turned from the buildings lit by flames of incandescent lights, black shadows against the deep blue, like a modern Starry Night, and floated gracefully to where Cat remained. “I’ll make dinner,” she sighed with a smile.

                “More romantic words have never been spoken,” Cat cheered at her back, following her into the kitchen. Together, they began pulling out the noodles, which Kara had been soaking, limes, chopped, seasoned peanuts, tofu, and other seasonings and vegetables.

                “Why do I feel like ‘personal chef’ just got added to my resume?” Kara wondered aloud while she whisked lime and chili sauces together with some brown sugar. “I would kill for some pork right now. Come on, Cat.”

                Cat looked up from where she was briskly peeling and shredding carrots. “Oh please, it’s because you’re faster and you have more energy. What I wouldn’t give to be able to do an hour’s errand in three seconds. Also, Kara, there’s nothing wrong with meatless options once in awhile.” She reached for some scallions to break down. “I used to cook all the time you know,” she said in a small voice.

                Now Kara wished she had the power to kick herself in the head. Taking a breath, she decided to jump straight in. “I’m always here when Carter is with his father,” she began, and was rewarded with a withering glare from Cat. She cracked two eggs into a bowl and whisked, pressing on. “I want to get to know him.”

                Cat bit her lip, shrugged out of her tailored blazer, tossed it onto the back of a barstool, and returned to her task. “It’s complicated.”

                “Because your divorce isn’t final,” Kara winced at the way Cat flinched at the mention of the painful event.

                “We are divorced,” Cat corrected her, “but Carter and him and I… it’s always about re-negotiating with a special needs child. I can’t… pretend that being with his father and his new…stepmother…might be better for him. More supportive.”

                “You’re thinking of Adam,” Kara pointed out gently.

                “I don’t want to repeat history,” Cat replied, “I want what’s best for my sons.”

                Kara adjusted her glasses, and then, remembering their little house rule, slipped them off and placed them on the counter. She and Cat reached for the tofu at the same time. She bit her tongue against all the things she wanted to say.

                Cat gently took the tofu from her so she could work on cooking the vegetables and eggs. “I’m not ashamed of you,” she said finally to Kara’s turned back, “It’s just….”

                “Complicated. I heard you.” Kara finished sadly, but not angrily.

                “He knows, you know.”

                Kara swung around slowly to face Cat who placed her hand over the tofu and turned the whole thing over, letting the perfect block rest softly on her palm. She reached for a knife without looking and sliced it into blocks with precision, never dropping one. “Who knows?” Kara asked.

                “Carter,” Cat replied. “He saw right through you. He’s amazing that way.”

                Kara bit her lip as she approached with an empty pan, into which Cat overturned her tofu, again perfectly, without a single one out of place. “So then he should be no problem right?”

                In tandem they worked on the dish, side-by-side, each manning a pan, and tossing in ingredients without having to verbally confer. “His problem is the same as mine,” Cat explained patiently. “He’s at risk. I can’t have him be a target. I am one thing. My son is…another entirely.”

                “I would protect him,” Kara swore solemnly as they combined the contents.

                “I know you would,” Cat assured her, rubbing her back and reaching a clean fork into the mix to taste it. She squeezed another lime wedge over it and threw in more cilantro. “But Kara…We agreed to just take this as it comes, and I don’t know…”

                “How permanent I will be.” Kara finished for her again in quiet tone.

                “That’s not what I meant,” Cat corrected her. “I just want this to be slow. He needs stability. But if I had my wish…” she stared out into space for a second.

                “Could we be a family?” Kara blurted out of the blue.

                Cat laughed and hid her face in her hands.

                “What?” Kara wondered, poking Cat with the handle of the wooden spoon she was using.

                Cat rubbed her face and sighed. “I was just imagining Christmas here. Me, with my elder son, my girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend—”

                “Whoa there, he wasn’t my—”

                “And my young son, begging to be flown around, and your sister the secret agent, and a million emergencies calling you out to duty. Oh and perhaps your cousin _Clark_ would be visiting along with his fiancée, my arch nemesis. What a family we would make.”

                Kara wrinkled her nose. “Ugh that does sound complicated.”

                Cat shrugged. “I would welcome complicated if it meant happy.”

                “Really?” Kara internally clapped for joy as she floated up, opened a cabinet, and pulled down plates while Cat set to work washing the cooking utensils and such.

                Cat nodded sincerely. “I have no idea how or when, Kara, but I could see it.”

                “Thanks Cat.” Kara, happily, floated by and kissed her cheek with great enthusiasm. She skimmed the floor and began to walk, careful never to float in front of open windows, no matter how high. “Sheers,” she said aloud, knowing Cat’s automated commands, and grinned with satisfaction as the sheer drapes covered the balcony without entirely blocking the ambience of the city. She moved some designer placemats around on the glossy polished wood surface of the dining table and set the plates upon them. Then she darted over to where Cat was approaching, holding utensils, and swept her up in her arms.

                “Whoa!” A nervous, excited giggle bubbled out of Cat as Kara kissed her soundly on the mouth and sailed effortlessly over to the food. “I had no idea you would be so happy with that.”

                “I’m ecstatic,” Kara assured her. “In fact, I feel like I could fly to the top of the sky.”

                “You’re still grounded, aren’t you?” Cat warned, seeing the light of mischief in her eyes.

                “I don’t think they’re looking for me here,” Kara replied casually. “It would be so fast. You’ve never seen the city like this. No one will see. Put your jacket back on.” She snatched it and helped Cat into it. The Chanel suit was black and ensured that Cat would be swallowed by the night, save for her thick braided silver necklace, which twisted around itself to form an infinity symbol. Kara toyed with it for a second and decided it wouldn’t matter.

                Kara herself was in black slacks and loose-fitting midnight blue button down with French cuffs. Faster than human eyes, she pulled it open and shifted around until she stood clothed in the black suit with gleaming silver crest, sans cape and skirt. Upon inspection, it kind of extended down her thighs like a second skin, more like a singlet. “I don’t need the rest. This will be fast.” She snapped abruptly and the lights went out, plunging them into darkness that would shield their escape. Carrying Cat in her arms, she stepped through the gauzy sheers and into the chilled night air, barefoot.

                “You’re not going to throw me off again, are you?” Cat wondered, sounding nervous as they peeked over the balcony.

                Kara gave a thoughtful look, and then abruptly hefted her as though to toss her, issuing a little yelp from Cat. “You evil little girl!” she screamed as Kara caught her safely again. “I take back everything I said,” she pouted, crossing her arms over her chest, even as Kara held her.

                “Oh Cat,” Kara murmured against her temple, “You know I would never let you fall. I didn’t then. I wouldn’t now.”

                “I want my dinner. It’s getting cold. Hangry equals lack of sense of humor,” Cat sniffed.

                “Mm. I’m going to veto that on the grounds that you’ve never flown like this before,” Kara decided.

                “I flew with you about fifteen stories after you—”

                “And yet here you are in my arms,” Kara teased, kissing her pouting pink lips. “Come on, Cat. Fly with me!” Without further warning, she shot into the night sky with a whoop of joy.

                Cat was instantly grateful she hadn’t eaten first, as her stomach dropped away without the rest of her, but Kara slowed and the G-forces subsided. Nervous but excited, she wrapped her arms around Kara’s neck and looked down over the city below.

                They were rising still, but more gently, until they hid in a bank of low clouds. The stars shone up above the light pollution from the city, but Cat could not yet see them. She looked down, and imagined that the lights were a mirror of the heavens. Stars both terrestrial and celestial. “I love this city too,” she admitted.

                “You’re its queen,” Kara replied, “and I am your most loyal servant. Want to see higher?”

                Cat hesitated and then nodded, holding tight to Kara’s neck. “You as a servant of any kind is like leashing a shooting star,” Cat told her as they rose.

                “It can be done,” Kara answered in her ear, as the wind was stronger here and ripped away their words. “Cover your face. It’s cold up here, love.”

                Within minutes, they broke the cloud bank and above Cat and all around her was a sea of endless stars from edge to edge of her vision. She gasped in surprise but the air was cold, sharp, and thin. It was hard to breathe. She tucked her face in her blazer and leaned against Kara, who spiraled gracefully, arcing higher. “It’s beautiful, but painful,” Cat observed. She had meant to say cold.

                “Not unlike someone else I know,” Kara replied, gently descending to a more manageable altitude.

                “You’re the only one who has ever really seen me,” Cat confessed as they slipped within range of the city again.

                “We have that in common,” Kara agreed. Holding Cat easily with one arm, she tipped her face toward her with her free hand. “In my heart, there is this feeling… I used to think flying was the best thing in the universe, but even when I’m on the ground, that’s how you make me feel.”

                Cat’s best and only response was to kiss her with all of her emotions behind it. She would have been unwise to speak, she reasoned. The exhilaration of flying in the arms of the one she loved so much made her want to say and do…insane things.

                When finally they mutually pulled apart, resting their foreheads together in serene sort of weightlessness, Kara smiled. “Time for dinner now?”

                Cat shrugged. “If you wish, almighty one.”

                Kara’s arms shifted around her waist and they drifted down, soundlessly, unseen, in the shadows where lights did not intersect, until she placed Cat’s high heeled boots against the smooth concrete of the balcony, her own naked toes gracefully landing her in a gentle _plie_.

                Hand-in-hand, they slipped through the sheers and closed the drapes, enveloping themselves in a private sanctum all their own.

                Illuminated only with dim lighting, Cat admired Supergirl, sitting adjacent to her at the dinner table, gracefully maneuvering her chopsticks. It was a surreal sort of scene that she didn’t imagine she would ever really get used to. For all her great ambivalence, the reality was that she was forever in awe.

                Entranced by her beauty, she reached over and tucked the waves of shimmering, light touched blonde hair behind her ear to reveal her face, uninterrupted, and let Kara take her hand and hold it.

“You’re smart too, you know. I love your mind.” Cat told her. “I know I rarely tell you that because I’m so obsessed with your body, but you’re amazing in every way.”

                Kara tilted her head and swallowed. “Goodness Ms Grant, you’re in a very sentimental mood tonight.”

                “I guess…seeing the city like that…it’s true what you say. It gives me some new perspective,” Cat sighed. “But really, Kara Zor-El, I feel like…I’m letting my heart lead for the first time, and I don’t want to stop.”

                It was odd, Kara thought, but as Cat gazed at her so glowingly, her eyes seemed luminescent with violet light. It was an odd optical illusion, but when she shifted, it seemed to go away, so she shrugged it off. Bringing her lips to Cat’s hand, which had rested in hers, she shrugged.

“I guess we have that in common.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was suddenly inspired to sit down and grind out something softer to end this story. I have an epilogue to write though, so there will be at least one more after this.


	8. The Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> -Cat looks for a special gift for Kara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is technically optional, but it will tie this story to my next one. I mean come on though, who doesn't want to watch Cat look at jewelry?

                 Cat blew into her office one evening very late. It had finally been repaired with bullet proof panels. She frowned that they weren’t nearly as crystal clear as she had hoped but it  had been at Kara’s insistence. It didn’t matter either way at this exact moment though. Even had she hated it, her personal assistant was, at this moment, flying somewhere into battle. Unless she wanted to make all the calls and arrangements herself, which she absolutely did not, it was all going to have to wait.

                She was a woman on a mission, as she had been the moment she had woken up in the morning a few weeks ago with Kara utterly exhausted, naked, and completely vulnerable in her arms. She had sent Kara away as usual, reminding her that Carter would be visiting, that she had some business, or some other excuse that she accepted without argument. None of it was a lie, of course, but she had had something special on her mind.

                The call to her personal jeweler had not been unusual in its frequency, though normally Kara handled that now. “No,” Cat had had to tell him, “not for an event. I will be purchasing this. Something very special.” She had listened to him run through options and had argued with him back and forth about colors, styles, and everything else under the sun. Finally, she had pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut against an incoming tension headache. This is why she had personal assistants. “Just send the whole thing. Yes every piece. That’s fine. Yes, that account is good. I’ll send back the rest. Yes. I’ll let you know when.”

                After that phone call, she had waited patiently for Kara to be un-grounded from her side-job (she refused to acknowledge its precedence over her role at CatCo, even if it was the government), and finally, when Kara had once again donned the scarlet and azure ensemble she loved so much, Cat had put in another call.

                Discretion, reliability, quality, and security were why she retained this particular jeweler. She was not disappointed when she saw that secure black leather cases were waiting for her on her desk after hours tonight. She needed some time and privacy to do this right.

                She knew the combinations. She had memorized them when he had told her over the phone. She spun the tumblers with her thumbs rapidly, eager to get to the contents. If Kara finished work early she would begin looking for her, and that would be a wrench in her plan.

                At last, she opened the first case, then the second, and third. She frowned, deep in thought.

                Every piece was gorgeous but they were mostly rings. Kara couldn’t wear one. It would be too obvious and easily damaged. Also, it might send the wrong message on all frequencies. It wasn’t an engagement ring. It was far too soon for that. Still, what could possibly do for a show of her commitment and adoration?

 Cat looked at them lovingly. This rose gold one here was so delicate and simple. Its warm elegance would look perfect against Kara’s skin. There were silver ones too, that reminded Cat of the winter moon’s wink that had been the silver crest of her black costume. With Kara’s warm coloring though, it seemed too washed out.  There were trays of traditional gold pieces too. She liked all of them, thinking of Kara’s shimmering hair, but kept going.

                Earrings were out. Was it even possible for Kara to get her ears pierced? Cat wasn’t about to suggest radioactive needles. Clip-ons seemed somehow tacky to her, especially with all the flying and fighting Kara was sure to do. She let a gossamer chain, nearly as weightless as a cobweb slip through her fingers, and had an idea.

                Her jeweler answered on the first ring. “A custom piece,” she told him. “Yes, based on this ring. I also want that chain. That will be fine. And yes, engraved. I know it seems simple, but here’s where it gets complicated. I want it in iridium. Absolutely sure. It’s a gift. Now for the engraving, I want it on the inside. No, not on the inside of the band. I want it in two layers like this… Impossible? Okay I’m listening. Yes, that would be right. It will only be visible under an x-ray? Perfect. This is what it will say…”

                Satisfied, she hung up and began packing the pieces back up with great care, setting aside one or two that she wanted for herself. Earrings with magnetic backings for dinner outings or casual wear wouldn’t hurt Kara either, she decided, and took her time.

                Then she saw it. It was sitting beside the last case. Surely she had handled it, as it hadn’t been there when she’d arrived. Why hadn’t she noticed? It was another ring, this one simple and…clear? No, as Cat gingerly lifted it and studied it under the direct light, she could see that it was very faintly…violet. In fact, it was one piece, as though carved from the most delicate piece of amethyst, tinged pink, and engraved with intricate markings all entwined around a small, faceted relief of an eight-pronged star. Once again, it appeared to have been carved from one single piece, and was as small and elegant as a diamond solitaire might have been.

                It wasn’t for Kara. That was obvious to her. It was too fragile, and even in its subtlety and fine workmanship, too showy. Cat couldn’t say exactly what drew her to it either, as it wasn’t her style, except that it seemed to speak to her. Literally.

                _You have a great love in your heart._  

                Cat blinked. She rubbed her eyes. She turned the ring over and over in her hand. It was warm to her touch, like a heartbeat. She thought about Kara, fighting God-knew-where, and her thoughts turned to something like a prayer. _Be safe my love_ , she thought _, I wish I could protect you_.

                _All you must do, to protect and avenge the ones you love is what you’ve always wished, and have finally begun to do…follow your heart_.

                As though half-sleepwalking, Cat turned the ring over, and slid it onto her finger, admiring its growing violet luster.

               

               


	9. Gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something strange is going on, but remains hidden. Cat decides to give Kara a special gift.

“Cat are you sure you don’t want to…rest or something?”

                Kara had poor reception in the boiler room where she had just averted a small catastrophe, and wouldn’t have answered her phone for anyone other than her sister or her girlfriend-slash-employer. Rolling her shoulders, she used one hand to secure the split pipes. A blast from her heat vision welded it shut.

                “Kara, I told you, the doctors said I was fine. Don’t you want to go out?”

                Kara brushed some rust off of her cable knit sweater and smoothed her denim skirt, hoping she hadn’t ripped anything. Oh why hadn’t she worn her uniform instead? This outfit was brand new.

                Concern knitted her brows together. She’d gotten a call early in the morning a few days ago, after she had finished saving a barge from sinking, and towing it back to land before assisting with the arrest of militant radicals trying to sneak into the city. None of that had compared to the worry that had dominated her thoughts ever since that call.

                One of the IT guys had come in early to work to set up and test the new fiber optics system and found Cat unconscious on the floor of her office. She had apparently roused easily upon being touched and shaken, but had been taken to the hospital.

                Kara had just been finishing when she heard her phone calling from the locker. It had been Winn, telling her the situation. She hadn’t even taken the time to change or clean up. She had flown straight to National Memorial Hospital without the slightest shred of a plan, her heart in her throat.

                She had listened for Cat’s voice, and hadn’t waited long, as she was railing at some nurse to cut her loose and let her go. Following it to the nearest window, Kara had waited for the poor soul to leave before jerking the window open and rushing inside.

                Cat was sitting up, drinking some juice from a plastic cup, looking tired but not worse for wear. When she’d seen Kara, the expression on her face was happy, but also a little confused or worried. “Hey there,” she’d said.

                Kara had rushed into her arms and practically choked her with a hug. “What happened?”

                “I guess I was just a little over exerted. Fainted or something,” Cat replied, sounding distracted.

                “From the sound of it, you were out for hours!”

                “That’s absolute nonsense,” Cat had assured her, “I just went in early this morning for a little prep. I’m going to London tomorrow, remember? I have things to do…”

                “Cat, maybe you should just stay home and take some time—”  
                “Don’t you start too,” Cat had scoffed, patting her back and pulling back to look at her sternly. “I may not be Super but I’m a huge badass you know. Aw, come here honey, don’t worry. You’re a wreck. We agreed this wouldn’t happen. You have bigger things on your plate—on both of your plates, with me gone all next week.” She had held Kara again, and then dismissed her with a gentle kiss. “They’re discharging me. Go fix that window you just ripped out of the frame, or someone will notice. Go on.”

                What had alarmed Kara even more was that when she’d returned to work and inspected Cat’s office for any sign of foul play, she had found nothing except a few tiny shards of what had appeared to be amethyst or quartz, and an armed courier from Cat’s jeweler retrieving several cases of jewelry. When Kara had tried to take a few samples for analysis though, they had vanished as though sublimated right through the cup she had used.

                That had been an agonizing five days ago, with nothing but a single professional phone call and a smattering of text messages in between. They had agreed not to text very much, in case someone was monitoring Kara’s lines. (Cat was a little paranoid but she wasn’t stupid.) Now it was Friday afternoon, and Cat had just landed back in the city and was wondering if she had time for a date later tonight of all things.

                Kara wasn’t sure if she should say yes. People didn’t usually just fall unconscious for no reason, after all. Despite all her reasons why she should decline, however, her desire to see Cat again outweighed what she imagined was her better judgement. “Sure, I would love to. Your place? Oh, we’re going… _out_ out? What should I wear?”

                “Something sexy,” came the purr of Cat’s bedroom voice over the phone.

                “Goodness what happened to being careful?” Kara asked, blushing and fiddling with her glasses.

                “I couldn’t stop thinking about you. There are things I need to say to you, and I don’t want to wait. Um, but if you’re busy, I understand.”

                “No! Not busy at all, Cat. I’ll be there. Er, where are we going?”

                “Sunlight Club, Lower East. Seven o’clock?”  
                Kara checked her phone. “That’s unusually early for a ‘going-out’ date. You feeling okay, Cat?”

                “I’m hoping our ‘going-out’ date will turn into a ‘staying-over’ date.” Cat’s voice was like velvet enunciated over every syllable. “Or who knows, maybe I just need to squeeze this in before I crash.”

                “Am I driving or flying?” Kara wondered.

                Cat sighed through her nose. “I can’t risk picking you up in that hovel you call an apartment. I’ll send a car to CatCo. Does my lady find that amenable?”

                “You’re the one who just called my apartment a hovel, _my lady_.” Kara crooked a brow at Cat’s casual snootiness.

                “Now, now, Kiera. We may be something to one another, and maybe I’m accepting of the extra scrutiny from the TSA or whatever overly self-important government organization has chosen to pretend to have you leashed, but I’m still your boss. It would be…unseemly to retrieve you there. Understand?” Cat’s voice was airy and lilting. It was the voice that was gilded in power that rendered ninety-nine percent of humans irrelevant. Kara gritted her teeth, but reasoned that she wasn’t totally alone. The background noise had picked up a little. Appearances, truly.

                “Understood, Ms Grant.”

                “There’s a good girl. And Kara? I’m looking forward to seeing you. I’ve missed you so.” This last part was whispered, hushed, and desperate. Kara wondered if a normal human, even with serviceable reception, would have been able to hear it.

                “You too, Cat. See you soon.” Kara managed before the call ended. She sighed and blew some stray hair out of her face. Cat was a hurricane. A force of nature. This had become a way of life.

 

                Cat’s neutral-colored, well-manicured fingernails drummed out an impatient beat against the polished wooden railing that lead out to the veranda of the six story nightclub above the Hippolyta Hotel, which overlooked the Falls on one side and the old-growth forest on the other, with the city blocked out by the building’s own structure. It was supposed to be an extremely upscale escape back to nature theme, Cat supposed, with the running water and living foliage in the hotel and all the bells and whistles of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, but the upper floors still ended up being either a rich kids’ retreat or a secret sex club for the rich and famous, depending on who was buying that night.

                Still, she had had a plan and was annoyed that punctual Kara had missed sunset. Annoyance, she had long ago decided, was still a more powerful emotion than the stab of worry that always rushed through her when she didn’t know where Kara was.

                She was just about to call again when suddenly the double doors, carved from great panels of exotic wood, were thrown open and in walked her date, looking both windblown and sinful in an off the shoulder midnight blue gown that draped, tapered, and flared in all the right places. When she spotted Cat and darted over to her, it became apparent that she was barefoot.

                “You’re late, Girl of Steel,” Cat murmured, willing herself not to move, despite her sudden urge to rush up to her. She was likely to ruin the poor girl’s dress in her overpowering desire to consume her.

                The room was a huge circular lounge lit in a strangely calming light that wasn’t at all like the swanky, sensual, dark clubs below. Cat was reclining in a seat that seemed to have been carved right out of the wall, which itself appeared to be the innards of a massive tree. The whole room seemed to have been sculpted by the real elves from Lord of the Rings. It was insanely lifelike and made her feel as though she were in an elegantly wild treehouse without seeming the tiniest bit over-contrived.

                The center piece of it all, she was almost sorry to say, for the sake of the design, was Cat Grant leaning up against a railing near where one might exit onto the deck. Her blonde hair was styled in a meticulously mussed updo, and her lipstick was a few shades deeper than usual. With very simple diamond stud earrings as her only jewelry tonight, Cat had banked on making a statement in other ways. By God, had she succeeded.

                The steel-studded collar of her crisp suit shirt seemed like fangs, claws, or armor against her throat, even as it sharply cut away in contrast with her sleek, black tuxedo style jacket with its slightly exaggerated, delta shaped lapels, which had been interfaced with leather to match the piping that ran along the cuffs and down the sides of the trousers. God, her legs were amazing. Kara wondered if she was drooling at all as her eyes followed the severe lines of material over muscle all the way down to her pointed-toed stilletos. The look was nearly as confusing to Kara as it was arousing. Androgynous and understated, but at once, feminine and dramatic. It had been so unexpected. She was forgetting to breathe.

                “You missed a glorious sunset,” Cat was saying in a low voice made to sound intimidating, but without any real anger.

                Kara returned to herself just in time. Tossing her hair, she replied. “This is the Ultraviolet Club _not_ the Sunset Club, which by the way is a narcotics rehab clinic. The car dropped me off and left. I thought it was a big joke until I walked up in there. Thanks to your little misdirection, I ended up having to fly after all tonight, while Googling, I might add, and they don’t yet have an add-on for turn-by-turn air travel.” She drifted over to where Cat waited, now with a crooked, sheepish smile on her dainty mouth.

                “Maybe I was suggesting you have a problem,” Cat mused.

                “I have a problem,” Kara informed her, grinning, as she drew near, “but I think there’s no cure.” She was surprised when Cat stood up suddenly, clutched her about the shoulders and waist, and dipped her for a kiss. “Whoa!”

                “I’ll suffer with you, darling,” Cat teased, bumping their noses together gently, before righting her. “By the way, you look positively edible. I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before.”

                “It’s new,” Kara replied blithely, spinning around for her. Peeking over her shoulder with a look of great mischief, she added, “Thank you, by the way.”

                Cat rolled her eyes and laughed. “Oh now I see what happened. You’ve become a mind reader on top of it all.” She snatched Kara around the waist and pulled her close, pressing her body against the length of her back before whispering in her ear. “I was going to offer but I was sure you would refuse.”

                “I figured you had something planned and the best way to meet your approval completely was to bend to your methods. I used the Worldwide account. You’re getting points. Promise.” Kara felt so strange declaring that she had so easily used someone else’s funds to get gussied up, but with less than three hours from hang-up to arrival, she had had to take some initiative and read between some lines. She had agonized over it for a full forty minutes before making the calls. In the end, given the way Cat was practically molesting her, it had been the right decision.

                “I’m just glad I don’t have to feel bad if I’m tearing this off of you later,” came a response with a bit of a bite on her earlobe.

                “Oh is this the kind of date this is?” Kara teased, spinning gracefully out of range and turning to face her. “You didn’t need to summon me to Rivendale just for that.”

                “Where is your so oft-talked-of sense of romance, Kara?” Cat retorted lightly, approaching with long strides and taking ahold of her hand. She twirled her under her arm before pulling her near again. They spent a few minutes thus, turning around one another, stepping and moving in sync to soundless music, stealing kisses whenever their faces drew close.

                “The reason we’re here,” Cat finally said, running her fingers up Kara’s muscular arms, “is strictly because of this light.” Kara looked up obediently. “They told me that it is meant to closely mimic the color and frequency of our sun’s light. For humans I guess it helps them in various ways, but for you, I had hoped that it would be like an extra recharge.”

                Kara stepped back and turned her palms up, closing her eyes to feel the warm vibration of energy. She opened her eyes and shrugged. “It’s not quite the same, but I’ve been feeling strangely relaxed ever since I walked in. It’s a little like…being buzzed. It’s really nice. Romantic even,” she added with a little kiss upon Cat’s lips.

                “I’m relieved that it meets with your approval,” Cat replied, looking pleased. “Shall we have dinner?” As she turned, the fading dregs of sunlight reflecting on her eyes gave them a sensuous violet luminescence that had Kara turning her face back for another look. “What is it?” Cat wondered.

                “You’re just…so beautiful,” Kara whispered, stealing another kiss.

                “I should be saying that,” Cat responded, leading Kara over to sit at an ornate wooden table overlooking the Falls. “Even if you did show up to your own party without shoes.”

                “What are you talking about?” Kara wondered innocently, looking down. Cat’s eyes followed to trace over a pair of silver- accented satin heels that looked like delicate ivy twisting over Kara’s perfect feet.

                “What…when did you… Damn you’re fast.” Cat was amused. She turned to the server who materialized seemingly by telepathy, and nodded to him. “Well, in lieu of powers, I have my own methods for impressing steely eyed suitors. I took the liberty ordering ahead, though I must insist that you taste this champagne too.”

                Kara raised her eyebrows as a server in a crisp black suit poured flutes of Salon Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. “Sure, it’s just not quite the same for me, remember? But if it’s about taste, and you’re pouring, I’m there. What are we celebrating?”

                Cat shrugged enigmatically. “I’m just…in the mood to celebrate being alive and in love for the first time in my life. I don’t know what’s appropriate anymore, so I just _feel_ and act with you. I can’t fly, so I bring you as high as I can. I can feed you. I can dress you perhaps. But there’s no end to all that I wish to lay at your feet. Do you know that?”

                Kara nodded seriously. “I think, if I were just a human girl, I would be very intimidated by your expressions of love, Cat.”

                “But as the closest thing to a living god I’ve ever seen?” Cat wondered seriously, her eyes watching carefully.

                Kara tipped her head and made a face. “I’m still a little overwhelmed, but I think I understand it. We both use our strengths to woo the other, and the more we feel, the more we act. You’re not the only one who’s practically worshipped in this relationship, you know. Cheers.” They tipped the crystal together but didn’t actually touch for concern of damaging the fine glass. “This is weirdly good,” Kara enthused, taking a second sip. “It’s so aromatic.”

                Cat imagined she couldn’t smell even a tenth of what Kara could, but she nodded in agreement, savoring the rich, yet refined taste of it, and waiting to feel its effects, praying for some courage. What did she need courage for anyhow? This shouldn’t have been difficult.

                She watched with pleasure as servers set down plates of food before Kara. “Those are some world renowned dumplings,” she mentioned, pointing at a complicated piece that looked like the thirteen-holed lotus root. “A little more elevated fare than instant ramen, I think.”

                Kara picked up the featherweight utensils; chopsticks, spoons, forks, and knives that looked like spun silver, leaves, and branches twined into helix configurations. The first dumpling was amazing. Pork and lotus root just like the shape suggested. She didn’t even roll her eyes at Cat’s constant jabs at her college student lifestyle. She tasted shrimp, duck, pork, and chicken dumplings that were lightyears beyond her frozen, pan-fried packaged ones, and completely outshone even the ones from the little place down the street from work. She was amazed at the way the flavors interconnected, complimented, and harmonized. Not meaning to be so absorbed, she glanced shyly across the table where Cat was delicately, but enthusiastically, picking through her own dumplings with the fine metal chopsticks too.

                “Cat these are…”

                “Yeah they’re… really amazing. I’ve never had better,” Cat agreed, without having to hear the rest. “Careful for course two. Don’t eat too much, my love.”

                Too late for that. They had finished all but the related dipping sauces when the servers arrived again to alternately clear and serve, of all things, ramen. Kara laughed and clapped her hands.

                “I’m not sure if you’re making fun of me or not, Cat.”

                Cat paused, chopsticks poised to dip into the noodles. Her face was the portrait of innocence. “I am not sure what you mean, Kara. Why don’t you have a taste and tell me if I’m having a go at you or not. Mind the gold leaf.”

                “What?” Kara didn’t bother to follow up her inquiry as she sipped the rich Shantan broth and picked at pieces of perfectly cooked truffle-topped wagyu beef that had been sliced and served on its own miniature brazier. “That is a different level of heaven. If I hadn’t flown into the stratosphere myself, I would swear I was there. Wait, what were you saying about gold leaf?”

                Cat shrugged. “I don’t want you to think I’m skimping on you, because believe me, that wasn’t my intention, but normally this particular culinary masterpiece comes with gold leaf applied as a garnish.”

                “You’re pulling my leg now.” Kara narrowed her eyes.

                “Not even close,” Cat replied, savoring now the melt-in-the-mouth texture of the beef and the perfect noodles with broth. She swallowed rapturously. “It just seemed way to ostentatious for you. I worried you would get the wrong idea of me.”

                “The wrong idea?” Kara echoed lamely. “We’ve been…you know. Together. There’s not a whole lot to get wrong about each other at this stage.”

                “You’d be surprised. Why, should I have the gold leaf fetched after all?”

                “God no, that sounds awful and wasteful and just…way too snooty for even the snootiest.” Kara exhaled. “Oh, I see what you mean there. Good call.”

                Their fingers reached across the table, linked, let go, and touched again. Cat had a truly magical quality, Kara decided. She was positively humming with some kind of energy. It was serene, joyful, and infectious. They made small talk, about work, Cat’s childhood, and even the weather. Everything seemed insulated by clouds, like the moment of their first kiss, or their first evening together. Yet, more than a honeymoon, it was settled and peaceful. Sure, Cat was pulling some major moves on her right now, but it didn’t seem extraordinary in a bad way. It was just Cat being amazing. Kara knew she would never get used to it, but at the same time, had learned to accept it, and moreover, welcome it.

                “Cat, I don’t even know how old you are,” Kara hesitated to ask, not wanting to be rude.

                Cat smiled, setting down her utensils so that the table could be cleared. She took another sip of the ludicrously expensive, delicious, champagne, and looked out over the tapestry of stars that had hung themselves aloft beyond the balcony. “Let’s just be conservative and say I’m twice as old as you. I’m really pushing the limits of both genetics and cosmetics, I think, for you to not know.”

                “I didn’t mean—” Kara hesitated and then plowed on ahead. “You know I don’t mean that. You’re more beautiful than…than that moon out there. You’re like my own personal sun. I only asked because I have no idea.”

                “It’s right for you to wonder,” Cat told her. “Look, Kara, we have to talk.”

                “Shit.”

                “It’s not a bad talk,” Cat consoled her instantly, with a raised hand. “Look, you’re not getting any younger. I doubt you’re getting any older either, at least not at the same rate as I am, but with your whole life ahead of you, don’t you want something more than…me?”

                “ _More_? Like what? An oil sheikh? Like a true blue-blooded demigod? Should I be calling Wonder Woman?” Kara was incredulous.

                Cat toyed with the rim of her crystal vessel. “I feel like we’ve gotten so serious over the last few months.”

                “I’m pretty darned serious, yeah. I thought we kind of sealed that deal with the whole shooting escapade.” Kara felt the back of her neck get hot, wondering where this was going. She gestured around them. “You brought me to Middle Earth on steroids, I think, not for a fling.”

                “You’d be correct,” Cat assured her sharply. “But Kara, don’t you want…a normal life? Children? You’re among the last of your kind.”

                “Cloning is apparently possible,” Kara offered helpfully.

                “I’m old, Kara, for that stuff, I mean. I don’t think I could raise even some delightful foundling. I have two children and I think I’ve proven I’m less than perfect.” Cat whispered a little despondently. “I could give you everything I have in me, but there are so many things out of my reach.”

                “Cat, where is this coming from?” Kara demanded. “Where do you get these ideas? I’m the one who should be insecure. I’m barely out of college and you’re so experienced and sophisticated. So confident and powerful. What could you possibly see in me other than my powers? I had to search my heart and yours for those answers long ago. Have more faith. What’s changed?”

                Her hand, rubbing along the elegant fingers of Cat’s right hand, caught on something. She looked down but Cat was wearing no jewelry. Looking back up, she saw Cat reaching into the inner pocket of her coat as the servers laid down a dessert platter with all sorts of beautiful, obviously fantastic desserts. Later, she would discover the delicate, aromatic, elegance of vanilla pannacotta with candied rose petals and rose syrup, or the rich dark chocolate of a torte topped with preserved orange peel. There was handmade chocolates and bite sized pastries of all kinds.

                In that moment though, all she could see was Cat taking her hands and laying in them some kind of object.

                “Cat—”

                “I’m not jumping the gun,” Cat swore, “I promise. I just wanted…I wanted us to get a little more serious. I needed to make a gesture, however small, so you would be assured of my commitment to you.”

                Kara opened her hands, letting them be cradled in Cat’s. What she saw took her breath away.

                “It’s nearly indestructible by Earth standards,” Cat explained, almost shyly, but proudly. “I designed it partially. The chain is so that you can…maybe, wear it under your costume? And know that I’m with you.”

                Kara didn’t respond. She was turning it over in her hands, studying the cool, sharp gleam of the iridium, warmed to the touch by resting against Cat’s heart all night.

                “Actually, I always worried you would be discovered so there’s a hidden inscription if you look between the two layers of—”

                “‘My hope, my love.’” Kara read easily, in a hushed voice.

                “Ah,” Cat sighed in relief, “Yes, exactly right. Good. Do you find it suitable?”

                Kara shot her a dangerous look and slipped the ring free of the chain, which she laid around her neck. She handed it to Cat along with her right hand. “Which finger was this made for, Ms Grant?”

                Without hesitation, Cat slid it upon the ring finger.

                Kara made a big show of inspecting it before declaring grandly. “It’s more than perfect.”  Their fingers met again and tangled together, as was their way when they were alone.

                Cat seemed to visibly relax at this. “I hate to rush dessert, my darling, but how about we take it to go? There’s a little more to this date.”

                “Oh?” Kara’s eyebrows arched in curiosity. “Inviting me back for coffee, Ms Grant?”

                Cat’s smile was rakish and haughty as she leaned back in her chair. “Of course, but you’ll have to sit through the drive.”

 

                It seemed odd to Kara that though they kissed warmly and joyfully on the ride home, and while Cat’s fingers insinuated themselves in the bodice of her dress, and despite the way her love seemed utterly rapt for her attention, she seemed also to hold them slightly apart, as though to keep her from getting overly excited.

                “What is it?” Kara wondered, kissing her way down behind Cat’s ear and along the nape of her neck.

                “Kara there are things I haven’t been totally forthcoming about with you,” Cat gasped as Kara began to slide her coat off by its razor-sharp lapels, “But suffice it to say for now, I’ve made some character growth as of late…” Kara’s mouth was teasing her hand-made buttons, and she had to push back. “And as of late,” she continued as she struggled to compose herself, “Would it suffice for now to say that I have the power to protect the ones I love… and that this growth has given me confidence enough to pursue our relationship in increasingly permanent domains, if it is also acceptable to you.”

                “I have no idea what you’re talking about right now, Cat, but it all sounds very ‘acceptable’ to me,” Kara assured her as Cat’s nimble fingers continued to travel over the length of her body. She looked out the window and realized they had arrived.

                In a strange sort of suspense, she allowed herself to be led in via the private entrance, which had become normal to her, and up in the elevator, though, curiously, Cat did not deign to touch her at all. In fact, she scarcely even glanced in her direction. Her gaze affixed itself to the gold colored doors and she stood with her feet planted as though prepared for a fight.

                At last, they reached the penthouse and the doors opened.

                A shape jumped through the opened doors and latched onto Cat faster than Kara had expected. She immediately went on guard before she realized that the little shape was yelling out, “Mom!” Also, Cat was laughing with uninhibited joy, rubbing Carter’s lush dark hair, and peppering his face with kisses, even as he struggled to nuzzle into her neck.

                “Hello, little man,” she exclaimed, rocking him back and forth. “Having a good day today with Miss Lara? I am so happy for your hug.” She looked over his shoulder at a kind-but-no-nonsense-looking, middle-aged woman who nodded and made her way out. A nanny, Kara supposed. She turned her attention back to where Cat was still greeting her son. “Can you look at me, Son? No? Okay, that’s okay.” She hugged him again and then turned him around to face Kara. “Carter, do you remember my…friend, Kara?”

                Her heart about filled to bursting, Kara stooped down a little so that the sensitive, somewhat socially awkward, preteen boy could see her out of the corner of his eye. He wasn’t short for his age, though his slouched, downward facing posture made him seem almost like a little child. Normally he had such scattered thoughts and often found the attention of others painfully overstimulating, despite his intelligence and tender heart. That much, she knew already.

                “Hi there, Carter,” she greeted him with an even tone and volume.

                Both she and Cat held their breath, shocked, as Carter turned to her, almost as though drawn by magnetism. His soulful eyes fixed upon hers, if ever so briefly, and in a strong, clear voice, he greeted her with a touch of reverence. “Hello, Supergirl.”

               

               

               

               

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm adjusting Carter's age and making him a little more vulnerable. I work with a special population as part of my day job, and I want him to be, while a mostly average kid, also innocent, a little fragile, socially awkward, etc. They're the kids most in need of heroes. Without deviating too much from the show, I want him to represent a slice of my students. In the same way that I reach out in love to my friends who inspire this work, I also, with my words, reach out to them as well (even if they'll never ever ever read this), because it's a special love that is shared with children. I also think it's a special part of Cat's life that is totally unique. I hope this comes across.


	10. Bonds, Transcendent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat comes clean, and bares more of herself to Kara.  
> Kara makes an offer.

               “I think I’m dreaming,” Cat whispered from where she laid against Kara’s chest, supported by the crook of her arm. They hadn’t made love tonight. Instead, they had stayed up with Carter, eating decadent desserts and showering him with much needed attention, and earnestly listening as he went on for hours about his new erector set. Cat had put an end to the little party only when Kara had nearly gotten herself roped into taking Carter for an impromptu flight. After that, it had taken Cat a little while to persuade her son to shower and get into bed in his room, on the other side of the dining room. Kara had politely excused herself so that they would have some privacy, but due to uncanny hearing, still had the memory of Cat singing her son to sleep replaying in her head.

                “This evening definitely went well,” Kara agreed. Finally, now that it was about midnight, they had undressed together and fallen into one another’s arms. Kara was wearing a beat up t-shirt from college, with boys’ boxer shorts, while Cat had opted for some fleecy soft pajamas. It was all very family friendly tonight. Despite the mood over dinner and on the ride home, the feeling over all seemed fairly content with the whole shift. It was new, and a little strange, but Kara’s mind was full of thoughts casting far and wide into the future.

                “You can’t be over all the time,” Cat told her, “At least not right now. I…I really want to make sure that I spend quality time alone with him too. Who knows, maybe one day he might even come back and stay permanently.”

                “I know, I know, buzzkill.” Kara nodded, kissing the top of her head, “I’m just full of joy right now that you trust me so much. He’s so much fun.”

                “You’re of similar maturity, so I’m not surprised,” Cat teased. She snuggled tighter into Kara’s embrace. “But all jokes aside, we should really talk.”

                Kara nodded sagely. “Cat, what are you so hesitant to talk about? Whatever it is, we can work it out.”

                Cat grew so still in her arms for a second that at first Kara wondered if she had fallen asleep. Just as she was about to gently jostle her though, she turned and looked up at her. “Can you keep a secret? I mean it, Kara. Swear it to me.”

                Now, Kara felt herself start to sweat faintly. Whatever it was didn’t seem to be anything in the realm of mundane. Even had Cat suddenly confessed she’d been cheating, or was pregnant, or even dying, Kara doubted it would have warranted such a caveat. “Cat, are you in trouble?”

                “No. No, baby, I’m not.” Cat was suddenly up on one elbow looking down upon her soothingly. “You know, I used to think that if I was, hmm, more like you? Special? I imagined that that would mean you wouldn’t need to have any secrets from me. You could tell me about your work, or whatever.”

                Kara relaxed just a little and raised an eyebrow. They had the sheers drawn over the window, and muted moonlight shone in, barely illuminating Cat’s contours, and certain planes of her face as she shifted. “Okay?”

                Cat’s right hand was trailing between Kara’s breasts, comfortingly, rather than suggestively, coming to a rest over her heart. “Did you know that for a split second, I was jealous of you? Jealous of the attention that Supergirl attracted, the fame, the praise? I wondered why it couldn’t be me.”

                Kat nodded. “Yeah, I’m aware.”

                “Hero stuff though,” Cat continued, “that’s not me. I’m a leader. I’m a name and a face, a banner, a story…Yeah, all of those things, I’m your woman. Actual trench fighting? Not so much.”

                “Cat, you’re a pretty up close and personal badass too,” Kara replied, looking dumbfounded.

                “Yeah, sure, in an emergency. A petty purse thief or a rapist? Yeah I’ll bring some pain, but let’s be real, I’m not cut out to catch any trains or planes.” Cat was toying with the silk screening on Kara’s shirt. “You make me feel braver than anything. I can’t explain what it is that you do to me. I’m not just regular badass me. I feel like I could…punch Superman.”

                “You probably _have_ punched Superman,” Kara snorted.

                “Hah.” Cat was without even her usual dark humor. “You fill me with this irresistible energy. Your adoration is addicting. It’s so pure.”  
                “It’s called love, Cat,” Kara assured her.

                “I wish I could protect you. I’m not a hero, but I would tear apart the universe for my children. I was so afraid to bring you into Carter’s life.” Cat’s troubled features spoke of all the vulnerabilities and possible tragedies.

                “So what changed then, Cat?”

                She was quiet, contemplative, and then fixed her eyes on Kara with the filtered moonlight washing a gentle sort of faintly silver-purple over the scenery. “I heard voices in my head and they told me to follow my heart.”

                “Aw, that’s sweet, honey.” Kara reached out to stroke her hair.

                “No, Kara… Come on, I need you to promise me. It’s so hard for me to even find the words.”

                Confused, she held back. “I swear, Cat.”

                “I began to hear it shortly after we… you know. I was, and often still am, euphoric in my love for you, and I thought I was just imagining it, but all I could think was how much I wanted to include you in… in all these other aspects of my life.” Cat was still rubbing her fingers against Kara’s heart. “I don’t ever want you to think I’m using you.”

                “Of course not, honey, but you’re scaring me a little,” Kara told her in a steady, gentle voice.

                _I’m just going to have to show her. Heaven help me_ , Cat thought, internally cringing at her terrible delivery. Then, she looked again at Kara and saw that her eyes were serious, full of love, and unwavering.

                “I’m not a hero,” Cat whispered, kissing Kara’s hand that pressed against her cheek, “but I’ll protect what I love.”

                Kara’s eyes grew huge and she drew in a gasping breath now as Cat’s eyes flooded with amethyst hued light, cascading over the smooth curves and surfaces of her body like an aura. The light was so bright that she had to squint to see it all clearly, and when it decreased in intensity, finally, Kara was amazed and mildly horrified to find them levitating, just about two inches off the bed, and not at all due to her own power. “Holy sh—”

                “Please don’t panic,” Cat shushed, eyes wide with agitation as they dropped back down, out of her control, and instead, under Kara’s. There was nothing different about her appearance, save for the faint sheen of violet aura radiating out of every pore, and the scintillating luminence of the carved purple ring upon her right middle finger.  Kara was gaping at her, and then the ring, alternately. Cat opened her eyes to try to explain further when her girlfriend sat up and roughly grabbed her around the forearms.

                “Tell me everything,” Kara demanded in a tense, worried voice. “Cat…tell me the truth. I found the shards of crystal and—”

                Cat’s thoughts wandered back to that night.

               

                _It doesn’t hurt. She knows instinctively that it won’t hurt. Even still, the walls of living crystal encase her, chasing every finger and strand of hair. She is suspended in what feels something like thick fluid but isn’t wet, and when she presses up against it, feels solid as glass. The pink-purple light is emanating not only from every molecule of this crystal which cocoons her, nor simply from the ring that now glows upon her hand, but from her own body as well, lit from within. She knows that it would be horrifiying if it weren’t so calming._

Am I going to die here? _She wonders, even though she knows the answer, and her thoughts drift to her sons. Adam’s rejection of her is still raw, even after all that has come to pass since then. She thinks of then men she married, and how they pushed away from one another. The chasms ripped in her heart forming impassible barriers between her and other people. She has so many regrets, so many fears, and so much she has yet to do to make things right._

_And then there is Kara. She sees a vision of Kara flying valiantly into space with others like her. Not Kryptonians, but a multitude of heroes in every imaginable variation and color. Some are not even humanoid._

_What is this now? Superman in another version of this world, carrying her broken, lifeless body, and screaming to the black fabric of the heavens. Cat wants to scream too, but she can’t. She’s disconnected physically, floating in a mental sea._

_This isn’t the only war she witnesses. The misguided rage of the original crystal from which her own ring was cut, the Star Sapphire…it consumes her with emotion. Love, unadulterated, unfettered, unbalanced. It’s a frightening power that is tempered by nothing, and drains away the will, poisoning the emotional well. She feels the first of her kind, the first to bear these rings, split the Star Sapphire asunder, so that they might wield its power and maintain their sanity. She sees it, she feels it, and her heart begins to doubt, but then, in her thoughts, there is Kara again._

_She is standing in her office and she sees the flash of a weapon fired from behind Kara. She is not in her body, exactly, so she screams at herself. To move. She sees, in bullet time, a non-reality that she has imagined. It is a nightmare fantasy that she has tried to block out. Of glittering green crystal embedded in every round. Of Kara between them and her. And her human body will never move fast enough._

_But she tries anyway._

_And now, every bullet stops, suspended in violet light, which bursts forth from her ring. She is drenched with sweat from the effort alone, but Kara is safe, and that’s all that matters. This is the reason she has put on the ring._

Lay your heart within _, the ring commands her_ , so that your power will be complete _._

_She reaches out her hand and hears its voice. It isn’t with her ears but with the most sequestered parts of her heart._

There’s so much for you to learn.

_She feels ancient knowledge flowing into her, but it is as if she is a computer, dispossessed of the requisite programs with which to open some of them. She knows that if she surrendered totally to this flood, most of them would swing open as unlocked doors. Why not do it? What more has Cat Grant ever loved more than power?_

“Myself, _” she says aloud, feeling herself within the confines of her body again, slowly, fitting herself into its crevices just as water flows through rock._ “I must always love myself _._ You cannot own that _.”_

_Words fill her mind now as she spins and floats in a tempest. Many voices lifted in an oath, as one, bathed in violet light. She feels her voice as well, though she will not internalize its meaning now._

_The last thing she sees is the shattering of the maturation crystal around her, and her last thoughts are of Kara._

 

                “I’ve been chosen because of you,” Cat said, coming back to herself now. Kara is nodding in understanding but holding her hand very tightly. “Because you helped me to feel something I’d thought I had locked away.” She frowned at the ring. “It grows stronger when we are together.”

                “You,” Kara corrected her gently, “Your power grows stronger. Not it.”

                Cat fingered it gingerly. “I can hide it, put it away, but I can’t take it off. I’m afraid that one day, it will consume me and I’ll lose my mind. All the things that make me, _me_. I think that’s a perfect metaphor for my whole life. I’ve always held back. I never wanted love to destroy what made me special. I hated the idea of being just a vessel for my emotions toward someone else.” She stopped Kara before she could protest. “If I’ve learned nothing more from this,” she wiggled her fingers, “it’s that my cynicism was not completely unfounded.”

                “It’s up to you,” Kara replied calmly, unflinching, “You have to tell yourself how much and how far you want to go. You control yourself, and you love yourself, and everything else will follow in due course.” She hesitated only now. “Cat, you have responsibilities though. To whom much is given, much is expected.”

                “Don’t you think I know that?” Cat spat, bitterly. “I wonder if this is really a curse. Another mistake in the long line behind me and stretched out before me.”

                “I think that depends on you.” Kara touched the ring now, and was unnerved to feel its energy reach out to her like a flower toward the sun. “But I think you’ve learned more, not about this, but about yourself, and that can never be a bad thing. Even if this ring left you right now, a more powerful Cat lies here with me.”

                Cat remained silent, considering her next words. Nothing seemed to adequately articulate her feelings, but she felt that Kara was as understanding as anyone could be in such a situation.

                “I can find a specialist,” Kara offered. “I’ve met this one guy. He used to be a test pilot and now, he’s kind of the resident expert on this Lantern stuff. He might be kind of a tool, but I could ask at work—”

                “No!” Cat waved her hands fiercely. “No, I don’t want that. I can’t, Kara. I refuse to be leashed, tracked, controlled...by them. I don’t even know who they are but I want no part of it.”

                “Dude, I _am_ one of them,” Kara pointed out, a little hurt.

                “That wasn’t a slight, Kara, but you promised. Look, if I need help, I will consider it, but I don’t even know the full extent of what any of this means yet,” Cat sighed. In a small voice she added, “One day, I know I’ll have to make a pilgrimage like all of my…star sisters out there…to the central battery, where I’ll recharge my powers fully. Without this, the light of the ring will eventually fade on its own.” She paused and looked away. “But…I can’t even fly.”

                This was surprising to Kara who was fairly certain that most Lanterns, bathed in the light of their ring for the first time, emerged with tacit, if nascent, understanding of their powers.

                “Can you manifest your armor?” Kara asked, and was relieved to see Cat nod. “Then maybe it’s just a matter of your confidence, because you can definitely levitate.”

                “Or, I just don’t have enough power,” Cat replied, feeling a little miserable.

                “Yeah about that, what was all of that about me? And your ring?”

                Cat shook her head. “The ring is powered by the violet light of love. It’s more of a process, but in short, whenever we’re together, I feel my powers soaking up all that emotional energy.” She exhaled and something like a very low voltage electricity vibrated between them. Kara sighed. It was like an amplified version of their usual attractive connection.

                “Cat,” she whispered, “Is it weird that I feel…”

                Cat’s mouth was upon hers. “I never want you to doubt that what we have is just for us. Never for this,” she gestured at the ring, “and never for my career, or anything like that.”

                “Cat, I have never doubted you,” was Kara’s response as they sat up against the headboard to look at one another more clearly in both moon and ring’s light.

                “I love you so much,” Cat was murmuring against the inside of her elbow, raising her arm to skim her lips against Kara’s triceps. Their hands found one another’s, and fingers entwined, palm-to-palm.

                “I love _you_ ,” Kara’s free arm pulled them close enough to breathe for one another, and Cat willed her ring to hide itself, covering them in darkness where moonlight did not touch.

                “I feel that I’ve been remiss in teaching you something,” Cat continued, her other hand stealing beneath the hem of Kara’s shirt.

                “I thought we were staying family friendly tonight,” Kara protested weakly, feeling herself returning to the mood they had resisted on the ride home.

                Cat’s lips were on her hip, following the dip there to her side and following her hands up Kara’s ribs with featherlight kisses as she pushed the soft cotton of the shirt up higher, before pulling it over her head and discarding it to the side. “You’ll just have to be quiet then,” Cat replied, her lips tracing the shape of Kara’s sternum.

                “What is it that you need to teach me now?” Kara wondered, her left hand rapidly sliding loose the pearly buttons along the front of Cat’s pajamas while her right hand rubbed along her thigh.

                “I’ve never been patient,” Cat murmured, “so despite all of my best intentions, I’ve always rushed this.”

                “I wasn’t exactly complaining,” Kara replied, spreading open the pajama top to expose her.

                “No, but your style is more appropriate.” Cat’s fingers slid through her hair, ten lines of pressure against her scalp, gently pulling her head back, as gentle lips rained against her cheeks, chin, and neck. “Orgasm doesn’t have to be so violent, you know. I’ve neglected to show you how it can be as gentle and warm as these blankets.” Kara’s hands were tugging down her pajama bottoms and she shimmied out of them, her knees coming to rest on either side of her hips, reclining them fully against the headboard. “I always go for something flashy, I guess.”

                “Did the ring tell you that?” Kara wondered, smiling against Cat’s shoulder, paying her usual respect to the double crescent scar there, and following along her collarbone with delicate kisses.

                “It gave me a new understanding, I suppose.” Cat clenched her teeth together as Kara’s warm breath landed over her nipple, but nothing more. “I want to show you everything. Love has so many shades. I've only shown a fraction. You deserve it all.”

                “You’re too self-critical,” Kara replied, her kiss a tease against the tightness of her left nipple and then her right, her tongue darting out just enough to wet it before retreating. “But that’s how you are. In all areas.” She pushed back against Cat now, bending her backward, away from the headboard, so that her back arched and her hair brushed the bed behind her. Kara kissed a trail from breastbone to navel, a word of love every time she touched the skin.

                “Let me make love to you, Kara,” came Cat’s tight, whispered plea from the shadows.

                “No Cat,” was Kara’s reply, pulling her upright for a single, deep kiss that was as gentle as a soap bubble. “Let go, and let me lead tonight.”

                It wasn’t like she really had that much of a choice, but Cat found that despite her usual insistence on all but the most momentary dominance, it was as easy to surrender to Kara as lying back. She couldn’t believe that the shy girl who had first fallen into bed with her a few months ago had been replaced by this one, whose hands and lips knew her body, and confidently caressed it, never letting a single part of her out of mind.

                _No_ , she corrected herself, as Kara turned her over, still on her knees, to run her hands over her tailbone and the dips on either side, _she has always known me, somehow_.

                “I’ve learned from you since day one,” Kara murmured, her nails running over her buttocks, followed by kisses. Not as light as a tickle but not enough to scratch. She turned Cat carefully onto one side, and her hand held her slim ankle as though it weighed nothing, while her lips returned to the softness behind one knee. “In all the things you say, and do.”

                Her fingers rubbed into the arch of her foot as she pulled Cat back onto her back, settling between her legs without any wasted motions. Her other hand joined Cat’s opposite hand again. “And also, in every thing you don’t say. In every action you choose not to take. Don’t you know that yet?”

                “Kara,” was all Cat could say. It was the only thought in her head that she could verbalize.

                “I am yours,” Kara murmured, her mouth tracing the outline of Cat’s other lips, “but you’re just as much mine.” All of this would have been enough to make Cat panic, but Kara lead the way without a single ounce of trepidation, and she found herself drawn to simply exist and follow along.

                “It’s true,” Cat managed, as Kara applied herself fully to her softness, kissing first as gently as a breath, but then parting her easily, and flowing within as if she were made of water. The first touch against the nerves made her jump, but Kara’s hands steadied her hips so that the caress of her tongue rolled through her like soft waves on a beach. 

                With Kara, penetration never felt like the violation it had always been with others. It wasn’t to say she hadn’t enjoyed it, but she had always felt that she needed to be in charge. She had always feared giving up too much. Kara was so different. Like a matched set, they fit together, seamlessly, in every physical and emotional configuration, each more complete together than apart. Damn that girl, she had always known, even before their first touch. Cat sighed, and at the quiet, loving insistence of Kara’s own body, melted into dreamy ecstasy.

                Kissing Cat’s thighs as she rose, Kara savored the sight of her, nearly drowsing now, and as pliable as a doll. “More,” Cat requested, reaching for her, skimming cool fingers over her breasts as she approached and took her back into her arms.

                She felt as light and fragile as a bird, this small human, made of blown glass and wafer-thin metals. Kara pushed her breasts together, knowing that the nearly translucent skin was easily bruised, and took her time, fingers and palms warm. She felt the soft requests of Cat’s fingers on her own, and then pushing into the muscles of her shoulders and arms, and answered with firm, wet kisses on the little peaks, coaxing her closer and closer, inch by languid inch, back to that place.

                Their dance was one of serpentine curves and the shaping of clay, for all the force and resistance they gave one another now. Gone were the angles and sharpness, the urgency, and the drama of all their previous flights. The rush of air and lightning.

                As Cat’s smooth, probing fingers found her private softness and were welcomed, their quicksand tango picked up tempo by only a fraction of a degree. Their eyes met, and it was as though they shared their thoughts.

                “Stay with me,” Kara murmured, entering her fully again, slowly stoking the coals within her as Cat stirred the liquid metal of her own desire. Cat’s eyes, which had shut, opened again, and this time, did not abandon her.

                “Together,” Kara pleaded once, her voice low and stern, like a distant peal of thunder.

                “Yes,” Cat agreed, and with this, sank beneath the threshold that separated the world of intention, sharpness, and consciousness, into one of instinct and feeling, where the barriers between them, like skin and bone, seemed to melt, and all she knew was Kara, and Kara inside her, around her, with her, bleeding into her like watercolors, loving her in a language that only the two of them understood.

               

                Time passed seemingly without sequence or regularity until Cat found herself wrapped up in blankets and Kara, surrounded always by Kara’s arms, skin, hair, the scent of her, and her soft voice in the shadows. The moon had passed them by and only slivers of its gaze remained in the otherwise dark room.

                “Well that was…” Kara could only sigh.

                “Family friendly,” Cat finished for her, smiling in lieu of laughing out loud. Kara’s hand was trailing casually upon her belly, making slow circles, low, between her navel and mound.

                “The ring?” Kara ventured, her voice not nearly as curious as her words. She sounded peaceful, almost sleepy.

                Cat opened her hand and reached out to it, feeling its radiant energy tucked away behind the fine barrier separating two realities. “Yeah, it’s full up,” she confirmed, turning her attention instead to the bright band of iridium that shone even in the low light, on Kara’s hand, which continued its mindless play upon her skin.

                “I was thinking,” Kara began.

                “You had time to think?” Cat jested.

                “Just now,” Kara clarified, laying her hand flat upon her belly. “You’re going to have to make some decisions about being a Lantern. That I know, if nothing else.” As though she anticipated Cat’s tension and withdrawal, she moved her hand up around her hip to still her. “But, if you can’t even fly, then you’ll never be Lantern enough to know what those decisions even could be.”

                “What’s your point?” Cat wondered, unhurried, and barely concerned.

                “You need a teacher,” Kara replied immediately, “and I’m no expert in this kind of thing, but flying…well, flying is one thing where I’m a bit of an expert.”

                Cat looked up at her strangely. “You? Want to teach me to fly?”

                Kara shrugged as though it were inconsequential. “If you feel like you want me to.”

                “I feel so blessed,” Cat replied, “and I could ask for no better teacher.” She took a second to consider something. “Kara, when it’s time…for me to… you know… Would you come with me?”

                “I need to learn to fly into space first,” Kara responded thoughtfully, “but I don’t see why we couldn’t learn together.”

                “Life is so unexpected,” Cat said suddenly, “having this conversation seems so unreal, but so does everything that’s happened in the last few years…along with the rest of my whole life.”

                “I know the feeling,” Kara’s voice was contemplative as she reflected on her own solo journey. She turned them now so that she and Cat laid face-to-face on their sides. “But everything from now on, we will face together. Okay?”

                Cat’s face was less distinct in darkness but Kara saw her smile.

                “Yes, together,” she replied, and all other words were rendered inconsequential as Kara reached out and lovingly enveloped her once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END!!!!!!!!
> 
> You guys are the best readers ever. It's finally time for me to end this work. Their stories will continue very shortly though, with added elements and circumstances. I have several stories in me, and I hope you all will come with me to see where these characters travel in both space and emotionally as they grow together. I want to have more family time, as well as sexy time, and outside challenges that will test and temper them as people. Stay tuned!


End file.
